This Erratic Planet: What Happens When the Earth Changes Its Axis of Rotation

the earth sits comfortably in its orbit tilted on its axis at 23 degrees knock the planet over and it wouldn't be the earth as you know it how can a slight change in its axial tilt make the planet uninhabitable this is what if and here's what would happen if the Earth's axis was tilted by 90 degrees only two planets in the solar system lie on their sides Uranus and the dwarf planet Pluto now if something took the earth off its stand the blue planet would have no chance of developing any complex life on its surface but let's start at the beginning this axial tilt or obliquity is what drives the seasons here on earth before the collision that created the moon the Earth's axis was slowly wobbling around somewhere between 0 and 85 degrees then our newly formed moons stabilized it but if that collision happened at a different time things would have turned out very different here on earth it