will the moon ever collide with the earth?

Answer 1

Not very likely, since it is moving away from the earth at about an inch a century, and after a time, will begin to accelerate due to lessening gravity. It will take around a billion years to go off on its own. The only way I can think of that it could hit earth, is if the suns gravity takes hold of it, and slingshots it back at us at high speed.

Answer 2

An increase in the Earths gravity would cause the moon to collide with it. For this to occur the Earths mass and density would have to increase so is very unlikely. The moon could get whacked by a comet or something and fall out of orbit. The moon was possibly created from the debrie of an earth impact.

Answer 3

No, it orbits the earth at a constant radius, or distance away. The only way it could collide is if a very massive object were to collide with the moon and throw it out of its orbit. But, seeing how great the distance is between the earth, moon, planets, and other celestial bodies, the chances of that are just about zero.

Answer 4

There is something called a Roche limit. If the moon comes within a certain distance of the earth it will break up in orbit due to tidal forces. It's the same thing that prevents merging binary neutron stars from colliding directly, but rather rip each other to pieces while going half the speed of light in close orbit, resulting in the most destructive force in the post-big bang universe, rather than just disappearing into a black hole.

Answer 5

absolutely no! the moon collided in Earth since the Earth formed. its gravitational pull keeps the moon in distance, but the earths pull is so strong that it actually pulling the moon outside its orbit, so dont worry....... the moon will never collide to earth

Answer 6

Yes, it probably will collide with Earth someday. Right now the moon is slowly getting farther and farther away, and eventually it will leave orbit altogether. Then it will orbit the sun in nearly the same orbit as the Earth, making a collision inevitable.
Or else the sun will expand into a red giant, and the sun's inflated atmosphere will cause orbital decay for the moon, causing it to collide with the Earth, as well as causing both body's orbits to decay into the sun.
But both of these eventualities are many billions of years off into the future. Me, I am sending all of my descendants to live on Mars or beyond.

Answer 7

NO... looking at the physics perspective:

The moon is ACTUALLY falling towards Earth but never really gets a chance to collide with it because of the timing of Earth's rotation (about it's axis) with respect to the "falling" motion of the moon.

In simplest terms, the moon "falls" (due to gravity) as the Earth turns, therefore the moon never really hits the surface of the earth because it's trajectory (pathway) is "diverted" with the Earth's rotation.

Now, in the case of your question: The moon WILL fall to Earth IF > Earth suddenly (for whatever reasons) stops rotating (so that half the planet gets full sunlight and the other half is always night), OR > If a chance meteor / asteroid collides with either the moon / Earth making them change their trajectories.

Answer 8

I'm a contrarian. I think that some of the orbital energy of the Earth Moon pair is being converted (via tides) to heat energy hence the moon is in a decaying orbit. Any collisions it has with the solar wind must sum to a slowing. Any collisons it has with gases leavingEarth would impart momentum away from the Earth. Finally, when the sun expands to envelop the Earth the drag of the Sun's atmosphere should lead to even more orbital decay. WHile its possible that orbital resonances could lead the moon to be pulled away, my money is on a crash and splash.

Answer 9

According to the science channel a documentary indicated that the moon is actually leaving the earth but will not leave the earth's pull for at least another billion years.

Answer 10

No, because the moon is actually flying out of the earths orbit.
Many years ago (probably millions), around the Hawaiian islands, there has been evidence of waves being hundreds and thousands of metres tall. This was the result of the moons influence on ocean patterns. As it was much closer to earth than it was today, it effect was far greater.