An amazing new report shows that the moon has a huge impact in our Earth in a way we hadn’t realized before.

A new study indicates that the changing phases of the moon have an impact on the amount of rainfall we get here on Earth, albeit a slight one, according to an Economic Times report.

The moon creates a bulge in the planet’s atmosphere when it is high in the sky that results in a shift in how much rain we get here on Earth — a suspicion scientists wer able to confirm by using data to show that air pressure on the surface of the Earth changes depending on the phase of the moon.

The findings were published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

The moon’s gravity causes a slight bulge towards it when it is overhead, resulting in higher pressure that increases the temperature of the air, allowing it to hold more moisture and therefore lowering the amount of rain that falls.

Scientists used data from 1998 to 2012 gathered by NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite to make their findings. It’s not a big change — scientists estimaate there is only a shift of about 1 percent in total rainfall, meaning that we wouldn’t notice much difference.

But it is an important finding that could be used to test climate models to see if the physics are correct or if they need tweaking.