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What a glorious sight...

jmurray01

By jmurray01
in The Astro Lounge

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Nick P

Nick P

Posted
Posted
It is a shame to think that in time the moon will disappear :)

Apparently not - as both bodies exert forces on each other, the moon moves away (at 1.5 inches per year) and in about 5,000,000,000 years the two bodies are tidal locked where the moon rotates around the earth at the same rate the earth rotates, then the sun tidal pull gets involved and the earth slows some more at which point the moons orbit speeds up and reduces as well leading to the moon crashing towards earth, which it wont do as it would break up first!

And by then we would have hit another galaxy anyway!:)

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Nexus 6

Nexus 6

Posted
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Apparently not - as both bodies exert forces on each other, the moon moves away (at 1.5 inches per year) and in about 5,000,000,000 years the two bodies are tidal locked where the moon rotates around the earth at the same rate the earth rotates, then the sun tidal pull gets involved and the earth slows some more at which point the moons orbit speeds up and reduces as well leading to the moon crashing towards earth, which it wont do as it would break up first!

And by then we would have another galaxy anyway!:)

Hmmm, I am still not sure thats the case Nick. I am wrong I guess, but I thought it would eventully drift away from us and we would no longer have a Moon :)

Alan

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Nick P

Nick P

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Apparently if the sun were not involved, when the earth and moon become tidally locked and the orbits hit equilibrium i.e. the moon stays in the same piece of sky so half the earth would always see it and the other half never see it, the equilibrium would be constant and not change, as long as no other forces are involved!

Fascinating topic this one, I like it:icon_salut:

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Hypernova

Hypernova

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Posted

From what I hear, the Earth is transferring angular momentum to moon at the expense of its own rotation. This means that the Moon is robbing angular momentum from the Earth's rotation, slowing us down, and using that momentum to gain velocity thus carrying it progressively further away.

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Nick P

Nick P

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From what I hear, the Earth is transferring angular momentum to moon at the expense of its own rotation. This means that the Moon is robbing angular momentum from the Earth's rotation, slowing us down, and using that momentum to gain velocity thus carrying it progressively further away.

Doesn't that stop at a point though so that the moon never actually drifts off on its own?

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