What does that mean for the earth? Don't we need the moon?
Thanks all, was just reading an article and wanted to know more about all this.
2007-06-30 10:02:43 · 8 answers · asked by Star 5 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
actually the moon does a few things on earth. it causes the tides, it plays an important role for stabilizing tectonic plates, so i would guess.
but ..
since its just an inch every year .. well .. try to estimate how long it takes till it has no more influence and drifts off.
I would say thats so far in the future that life on earth would compensate for no more having the moon.
2007-06-30 10:08:30 · answer #1 · answered by blondnirvana 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes, the moon is slowly moving away from the earth. This is actually caused by the ocean tides. You may have heard that "for every action, there's a reaction." In this case, the moon pulls on the ocean, causing the tides, and the ocean tides pulls back on the moon. They pull on the moon mostly "downwards" but slightly sideways, and the sideways pull is what's causing the moon to gradually spiral out to a higher orbit. This also makes the lunar month slightly longer.
Another reaction is that the friction from the tides is causing the earth's rotation to gradually slow down.
The moon's recession and the earth's slowing spin are related. What will probably happen is, over billions of years, the earth's spin will slow down, until eventually one earth "day" is as long as a lunar month. At that point, one side of the earth will constantly face the moon (just as one side of the moon constantly faces the earth today). At that point, because the rotations will be synchronized, there will be no more sideways dragging by the tides--in fact there will be no more tidal flows, period. That means the moon will stop receding, and the earth will stop slowing.
One effect will be that we'll have no more total solar eclipses. The moon will be so far away that its disk will be too small to cover the sun.
Another effect will be that any life forms that depend on tidal flows, will be out of luck. But that probably just means that life will have evolved to the point where tidal flows are no longer essential.
2007-06-30 10:28:13 · answer #2 · answered by RickB 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes we need the moon. At the rate of 1.5 inches a year, it would take many 440 years for the moon to move 1 mile away from the earth. The moon is 225,000 miles from the earth or so already. The effect of this 1.5 inches/year is negligible and can be ignored for our lifetime and well into the future. Maybe if the moon continues to drift and reaches 12500 more miles away from us (5% of 225000) then the effects of this drift could be noticed. The 5% movement away from us (assuming a constant rate) would take 440 x 12500 = 5.5 million years.
2007-06-30 10:20:33 · answer #3 · answered by andrewmillsengineer 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Tidal friction, caused by the movement of the tidal bulge around the Earth, takes energy out of the Earth and puts it into the Moon's orbit, making the Moon's orbit bigger.
The Earth's rotation is slowing down because of this. One hundred years from now, the day will be 2 milliseconds longer than it is now.
It is expected that in 15 billion years, the orbit will stabilize at 1.6 times its present size, and the Earth day will be 55 days long equal to the time it will take the Moon to orbit the Earth.
2007-06-30 10:14:05 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Earth's moon became shaped while a planet appropriate to the scale of Mars collided with Earth hundreds of tens of millions of years in the past. so which you're proper. At one time the moon did in certainty touch the earth because of the fact the moon got here from earth textile. Your math is somewhat undesirable, notwithstanding, because of the fact the moon's shifting away value of a million-a million/2 inches a year isn't consistent and not often makes it only some thousand years in the past! attempt hundreds of tens of millions of years.
2016-10-03 07:46:55 · answer #5 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The moon is 238990 miles away from earth. For it to have any effect, I'd assume the moon would have to move at least 15,000 miles. Considering there's about 63,000 inches in a mile, you're looking at about 9 million years before it has any effect :).
2007-06-30 10:20:52 · answer #6 · answered by Aidan Connor 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
it means that long before the moons effects fade there will be ALL KINDS of other issues for mankind to worry about, LIKE METEORS AND ASTEROIDS, or the sun burning itself out, or some unseen deity bringing on armaegeddon...........
2007-06-30 12:57:39 · answer #7 · answered by jonboy2five 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
of course we need the moon. it controls the tides in the water. if we don't have a moon then we would have tidal waves everywhere.
2007-06-30 10:08:49 · answer #8 · answered by Ayllu :D 2 · 1⤊ 2⤋