Could the moon drift away from Earth?

Answer 1

The moon is distancing itself from the earth at a rate of 1/2" per year.

Answer 2

The moon is a genuine enigma. It is just far enough away, and just the right size, to cause a total solar eclipse. The same face of the moon is always facing the earth; it does NOT rotate. Sometimes it turns a little in one direction, then it turns back to its original position. There have been cave paintings found depicting the arrival of the moon. Measuring devices sent there by NASA found that the moon was still resonating following a previous hit by an object. A diamond drill once used on the moon was blunted before it even dented the moon's surface. The size of the moon, with its estimated mass, would not be able to hold the orbit that it does, it would be 'far' too heavy! One of the Appollo missions, I think it was 13, was actually intercepted by an object 'fired' from the moon. If you watch the film, they even say that mnuch. The moon is truly an enigma.

Answer 3

All the planets except Venus and Mercury have moons. The Earth's Moon is the fifth largest in the whole solar system, and is bigger than the planet Pluto. Earth's gravity pulls on the Moon and keeps it in orbit. The Moon's orbit is almost a perfect circle, so the Moon is about 384,400 km away all the time. Although the Sun is really much bigger than the Moon, the Moon is much closer, so it appears to be the same size as the Sun in our sky. A total eclipse occurs when the Moon is in the right position to just cover up the Sun.
It takes the Moon about 27 days to go around the Earth once. If you check on the Moon several times during one night, you will notice that it moves relative to the stars around it. As the Moon goes around the Earth, different portions of it are lit up by the Sun, causing lunar phases. It takes the Moon one month to go through all its phases.

Have you ever heard the term the 'far-side' of the Moon? The Earth's gravity produces tidal forces on the Moon. This causes the same side of the moon to always face the Earth. People living on the Earth can never see the 'far-side' of the Moon, unless they go there! Tidal forces cause many of the moons of our solar system to always face their planets.

Answer 4

Yes, the moon could drift away from the Earth by numerous reasons. One being that the gravity field of the Earth could change, lets say it went smaller. Then the Moon could lose contact with that field and begin to wander. If the sun were to become more violent and become a red giant the Sun would increase in size, probably engulfing the inner planets of Mercury and Venus. With the Moon not in orbit around Earth, we would not have any waves on the oceans.

Answer 5

Friction by the tides is slowing the earth’s rotation, so the length of a day is increasing by 0.002 seconds per century. This means that the earth is losing angular momentum. The Law of Conservation of Angular Momentum says that the angular momentum the earth loses must be gained by the moon. Thus the moon is slowly receding from Earth at about 4 cm (1½ inches) per year, and the rate would have been greater in the past. The moon could never have been closer than 18,400 km (11,500 miles), known as the Roche Limit, because Earth’s tidal forces (i.e., the result of different gravitational forces on different parts of the moon) would have shattered it. But even if the moon had started receding from being in contact with the earth, it would have taken only 1.37 billion years to reach its present distance. NB: this is the maximum possible age — far too young for evolution (and much younger than the radiometric ‘dates’ assigned to moon rocks) — not the actual age.

http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/764

Answer 6

Yes. In 1999, an accident on Moonbase Alpha resulted in an explosion which forced the moon out of it's orbit and away from the Earth.

What you see at night is a large reflecting dish, about 200miles across that simulates the moon. The space shuttle astronauts fold it into quarters from top to bottom so represent the moon's phases.

Because of the tidal effect, huge magnets in space now control the ebb and flow of the tide.

Answer 7

The moon IS drifting away from Earth, as it loses energy due to tidal interaction. The motion is small, something on the order of a centimeter per year.

Similarly, days are getting longer.

LOL.

Answer 8

It is going away at an average rate of about an 1.6 inches a year due to the tidal forces of the oceans on the ocean floor on earth. You have to look at the moon and the earth as a whole system, billions of gallons of water moving against the uneven ocean floor has a dramatic effect over large periods of time. Don't worry though, like a few people have said before, you'll be dead long before that happens.

Answer 9

The Earths size draws the Moon close while its orbital speed keeps it at distance. They can't do without each other.
If the Moon escaped it would be drawn to it's demise in the Sun. If the Earth lost it's moon, there would be no tides or weather and ultimately no rain, no crops. no food. No us.
The Moon isn't completely round either, It's egg shaped, The Earths gravity stretched it when it was first formed from molten stuff. I love the Moon.

Answer 10

Of course it could. Anything is possible when it comes to space. The universe is constantly expanding and other forces, such as gravitational pull, could affect the existing orbit of the moon. This is going to happen eventually anyway and would have catastrophic results here on earth. Nothing is forever, we just like to think so.