What are the odds that a planet well suited for life, has exactly 1 sun in its solar system and exactly 1 moon

Question

What are the odds that a planet well suited for life, has exactly 1 sun in its solar system and exactly 1 moon.

Also, would the copernicus/galileo argument have been easier if we had zero moons?

Does our moon "shield" the earth from 1% of earth-bound comets? Is that what happened to our second moon? Did it protect our dinosaur ancestors from the end of organic lfie?

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Answer 1

Well, to answer your first one, lets say that there's one in a trillion chance (I'm pulling that out of my butt, but yeah) that theres a solar system that fits your parameters can form.

There's about a 100 billion stars in our galaxy alone, depending on who you ask and on what day of the week. that's about 10% of a trillion. So you could say that 1/10 galaxies have a solar system that is like what you describe. Now, there's an innumerable amount of galaxies out there, so, i'd personally say that the chances are almost 100%, but then again, these are guesstimates and could be completely wrong. But still, one in a trillion = yes. :P

To your second question.

I suppose it would have been, although I doubt the idea would have been accepted any faster, or that we'd even have life if there was no moon.

I guess that it may shield us from a small number of meteors (not comets, as comets are massive balls of ice, and would wreak havoc if one came near us). As for that second moon thing, do you refer to Cruithne? I believe it's just a planetoid trapped in our gravity way that got caught up, that's why it's orbit is screwy. And if it was protecting the dinosaurs (which I strongly doubt, btw) then it did a pretty bad job of it.