What causes Earth's tilt?

The reason you got Thumbs Down was probably because, while kinda correct, your answer was very 'simplistic or simple.' There are many reason the Earth is still tilted at this angle. While your answer was basically correct, in that the Moon KEEPS THE EARTH at this tilt and doesn't let it flop back and forth, the Moon is NOT the reason it is tilted in the first place. Sorry, for the Updates, but without the Moon, the Earth would no longer have a stable axis and would flop back and forth like a top winding down. We NEED the Moon.

Earth’s axis is tilted at: 23.439281°

Some astronomers think that about 5 billion years ago, when the Earth was still very young, it was struck by a Mars-sized planet. This colossal impact could have tipped our planet over. Whatever the reason, it's a good thing - if the Earth did not tilt, countries near the poles would be cold and dark all year round. If it tilted too much, the seasons would be very extreme – like on the planet Uranus. Here the winter lasts for 42 years in total darkness!

The angle of the Earth’s tilt is stable over long periods of time, but the Earth slightly wobbles on its axis like a top – this is called Precession. The date of the seasons is slowly changing over a 25,800 year cycle, so that the times for summer and winter will eventually switch, and will become summer in the northern hemisphere during December and winter during June.

http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?numb...

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=200912...

http://www.universetoday.com/47176/earths-axis/#ix...

YouTube:

WHY DOES THE EARTH TILT?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMpoja-uoEc

Everything you just stated was wrong.

-The earth's tilt has nothing to do with the moon orbiting it.

-Getting rid of the tilt would not improve the climate. In fact without seasons, most of the life that evolved on earth would go extinct.

-Earth's title is mainly caused by precession. Precession is a change in the orientation of the rotational axis of a rotating body. Think of how a spinning top wobbles. The earth wobbles too, but because of the earth's mass, the wobble is much slower than a top. It takes the earth nearly 26,000 years to complete one full "wobble."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_precession_(ast...

Edit:

A collision might be responsible for the specific angle, and the moon does add a slight stabilizing effect, but axial precession would still exist even without collisions or moons.

The blind leading the blind.

You not only could be wrong, you are ridiculously wrong. Too bad some people don't appreciate the extent of their own ignorance. Please consider only answering questions where you actually have some expertise in the subject, rather than parroting inaccurate garbage you read on some ignorant web site.

-=-

We believe the Earth's tilt was caused by one (or more) enormous impacts. One current model of the Moon's creation is the collision between the Earth and a Mars-sized planet (but not Mars). This impact could have both tilted the Earth and caused enough ejecta to create the Moon. So the two may be related, but if that model is correct, both are results, not causes.

I don't believe we know for certain, but it's probably because something very large smacked into it at some point, "tipping it over", as it were. Possibly it was the cumulative effect of many, many smaller impacts over the course of history.

It's thought that this is how the Moon formed — an approximately Mars-sized object struck the Earth and the debris from that collision coalesced into the Moon. The axial tilt could have been caused by the same incident, or by a long series of smaller strikes.

Probably the main reason for the tilt of the earth is the water imbalance ratio between the surface waters and the atmospheric waters. Other things that contribute to it probably have little to do with why it tilts but more to do with why it maintains its tilt. The moon, as one example, stabilizes the earth at its axis, even if it changes the moon would tend to stabilize the earth at a different axis.

The earth's balance between atmospheric waters and surface waters at present is about 29% by 71%. Long ago during earth's early history, about up to 15,000 years from the appearance of man, the earth had a water ratio of about 34% atmospheric waters to 66% surface waters. The excess water that has come to be on the earth has caused the tilt of the earth to change and cause drastic temperature changes and weather patterns. It is also the cause of mountains to become higher than they were during early earth history. The moon and other properties of physics have little to do with the tilt. The cause of the tilt is more close to home. :)

EDIT: There is more liquid water on the surface of the earth and less than ideal amounts of water vapor in the atmosphere causing a weight imbalance and thus causing the tilt of the earth. If the earth had a tilt during its early history it was much less than the present 23 degrees that exists today.

Axial Tilt is the manifestation of a body's rotation in Space (three dimensions).

Earth's tilt can't be discussed in isolation. Earth shares this feature with all other planets of the Solar system (or any such planetary system anywhere). In our system (of 13 to count with) each has its own tilt. Two planets are the extreme cases with one (Venus) turned on its head upside down, while another is half way through (Herschel) to lie supine in the plane of the Ecliptic. At best (as per the existing theories) all the hit and run accidents possible for all these planets, as explainable are all random events with no connecting thread between them.

Scientists think that at some point in its early history earth got hit by a large asteroid which knocked it partly onto it's side in a tilt. There are advantages to having seasons, including prompting living things to be more adaptable.

Good question. Obviously nobody knows for sure. My guess is that if something hit the earth and created the moon, as is theorized, it would have kept the earth tumbling for a while until the tidal locking of the earth and moon stabilized to the current steady state. So, by that argument, the event that created the moon, combined with the moon itself, would be responsible.

I believe the most commonly stated cause is that during earth's formation (or towards the final part of it), it collided with another proto planet. This is what caused the tilt.

there are several reasons for the earth's tilt- the moon is only a small one. there is also the sun and our own rotation.