HappyBookWorm2020's Reviews > Our Moon: How Earth's Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are

I learned a lot when I read this book. For instance, there is a hypothesis that our Earth has a larger mantle and core due to colliding with a planet named Theia. That collision resulted in the formation of our moon.

The moon by its existence stabilizes the Earth's orbit. Its gravitational pull is responsible for the length of our days, the seasons, and the tides, and affects animal migration and reproduction. The moon also likely contributed to life on this planet, since the moon's gravity pulled nutrients from the ocean floors to the surface. I wondered what our earth would be like if we had a smaller or larger moon or one not in the same orbit.

The author includes stories about how the moon influenced important events. One story was about how disastrous a military assault was during WWII. The tides did not rise as expected, and the Allied troops were not able to get their boats over a coral reef. They were trying to capture a small island with an important airstrip that would have put them in flying distance of Japan. Instead of sailing in, they had to fight their way in, and one-fifth of their troops died in the attempt.

I had always assumed that the moon would be barren rock, but it is covered with dust - sharp, abrasive dust that smells like gunpowder. We know this because our astronauts brought some back. They also reported that the dust got into everything and was extremely uncomfortable.

I recommend this book for anyone interested in how our moon came to be what it is, and how it impacts our planet. I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher Random House via NetGalley. It was a pleasure to read and review it.