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Planets like Mercury and Venus do not have moons, and they do not appear to harbor (higher) life (forms). How significant is it for the emergence of life on a planet that it has a moon? How does it affect the planet's ecosystem, especially seasons and periods?

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  • $\begingroup$ This question is too broad, and to a large extent off-topic for Bio-SE. $\endgroup$ Nov 15, 2013 at 13:49
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    $\begingroup$ This question appears to be off-topic because it is about astronomy, not biology. $\endgroup$
    – terdon
    Nov 15, 2013 at 14:22
  • $\begingroup$ "our" moon certainly affects tides and so the animals living near the sea shore like barnacles have to face both high tide and low tide during which they become dry. $\endgroup$
    – biogirl
    Nov 15, 2013 at 16:30
  • $\begingroup$ Out of curiosity, has this been posted on Astronomy SE? The moderators might take it, although I believe it's a duplicate of something. $\endgroup$
    – HDE 226868
    Sep 24, 2014 at 0:58
  • $\begingroup$ Pluto does, in fact, have moons. $\endgroup$ Dec 10, 2014 at 20:22

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This question is indeed off topic here but the reason these planets don't have moons is pure chance. Different moons have different origins, some could be meteorites or other drifting bodies that were captured by the planet's gravity, others could be pieces of the planet itself that were spun off before it solidified or from an impact event. Others could be mass ejected from the sun which was captured by the planet and so on and so forth. Whether any of these events occurred in a planet's history is down to chance.

As for ecosystems, since the only planet we know of that has one is the Earth, we have no idea how other ecosystems would be affected by the presence or absence of a moon. The absence of tides would be the most obvious effect but you could also get tidal effects if you have an erratic orbit around the sun or if you have other large bodies close enough to affect you.

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