N:dlzc D:aol T:com (dlzc) wrote:
Dear tripurantaka:

wrote in message
oups.com...
...
I need a clarification as well. Is the moon's gravity a
major facotr in the earth's tilt? In the absence of the
moon will the tilt be different?

http://www.astronomycafe.net/qadir/q106.html

David A. Smith



http://www.astronomycafe.net/qadir/q106.html is pretty out of data
as is says...

"Without the Moon, there might not be any seasons, or the seasons
might be very different ones. It is believed that the Moon is an
interloper from a more distant spot in the solar system which was
captured by the Earth billions of years ago. This capture would
have caused the rotation axis of the Earth to be seriously shifted
to where it is now. The Earth may have started off with a rotation
axis pointing almost perpendicular to the plane of the solar
system, rather than canted at 23.5 degrees as it is now. Without
this tilt, the rays from the Sun would always strike the Earth's
surface at a fixed angle every day of the year. At the Earth's
equator, the Sun's rays would always be perpendicular to the ground
all year long. At a latitude of 45 degrees, they would strike the
ground at 45 degrees every day, and at the North and South Poles,
the Sun would never make it above the horizon".

The scientific evidence strongly suggests that the moon was formed
as the result of a major collision with the young earth. The impact
certainly also contributed to the degree of tilt in the earth's axis
of rotation.