Last night was a so-called super moon, meaning, I think, that the moon was both full and at a closer distance to the earth. It's true that the moon is about 50,000kms nearer than average, but is it still much farther away than it was 4 billion years ago. You see, the moon has been very slowly moving away from us since that time, currently at about 6cms a year. It isn't much in an average human lifetime (perhaps 5 metres) but over eons it adds up. In a billion years or so, there is a real chance that we will lose our longtime companion. Humans will unlikely be around on earth, but an alien observer would note a change to the size of tides and possibly even the tilt and rotation-time of the earth, over time. It seems entirely possible that had it not been for the moon, life on earth may not have started or taken hold.

Last night I took my phone around the corner and snapped a (very poor) shot of the rising moon, which had a haze of cloud around it. The other light is not an alien ship, but a humble streetlight.