2007-04-29 17:13:04 · 11 answers · asked by moussmouss 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
The Moon orbits Earth.
In the simplest terms, you can think of it as if the Gravity of Earth is a string and the Moon is a bucket of water. If you swing the bucket of water around quickly in a circle, the water stays inside.
The Moon will continue to orbit the Earth for an extremely long time, unless there's some outside force that acts upon it.
That's Newton's First Law of Motion... an object in motion tends to stay in motion.
You can consider the Moon to be constantly falling Around the Earth in a circle, if that makes it easier for you to visualize.
2007-04-29 17:16:23 · answer #1 · answered by John T 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Stand at the top of a somewhat steep hill. Take a rock and toss it away from you. It'll land a few feet down slope. Now, take another rock and throw it from you with more speed. It will fall and land further down slope. If you throw it with enough speed, it will go far enough out so that it lands on level ground completely off of the slope of the hill. This is what the Moon is doing. Even though it is falling into the earth's gravity well, it has enough "forward" velocity to miss hitting the earth--it falls around the earth, just like all the man made satellites do.
2007-04-30 07:24:59 · answer #2 · answered by quntmphys238 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The earth and moon are somewhat balanced, the gravity verses the centrifugal force generated by the moons orbital speed and rotation. However, the moon is slowly leaving earth orbit at about an inch a century(I believe that is what I read), and that it over a very long period of time as earths gravitational pull grows weaker accelerate its departure.Don`t be alarmed, it will take about a billion or a few more before it just goes off into space, or gets pulled into the sun. toward the late stages of its departure, the tides will become smaller and smaller, weather patterns will change drastically as will probably many other things.
2007-04-30 00:35:23 · answer #3 · answered by Dan N 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Instead of crashing into the earth,the moon is moving away from us at the rate of one and one half inch a year,many millions of years from now,the moon will be but a small light in the sky
2007-04-30 02:44:36 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The simplest reason is that the Moon is moving away from the earth at what speed I do not know but there is a laser which was installed it takes a longer time to reach here.
2007-04-30 06:38:00 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The moons centripital force as it orbits the earth pushes it away, and the earth's gravity pulls in in. So its a convenient stand-off. It stays in orbit around earth.
2007-04-30 00:23:05 · answer #6 · answered by bakfanlin 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
earth isnt the only object in the galaxy which has gravity...and also the planets and moons are all spinning so angular momentum and gravity are balanced
2007-04-30 00:16:50 · answer #7 · answered by Brody 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the gravatational pull keeps the moon from crashing into the earth.the moon is actualy moving away fom the earth 3cm a year
2007-04-30 00:23:18 · answer #8 · answered by mark W 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
momentum its moving towards and away from the earth losing and gaining momentum do to the effects of gravity.
2007-04-30 00:18:32 · answer #9 · answered by Daniel H 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
because it also has a gravity.
2007-04-30 05:49:07 · answer #10 · answered by Jeniv the Brit 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋