What causes the moon to move further away from the earth?

Answer 1

God, I'm amazed at the wide range of answers.

The simple approach: The Law of Conservation of Energy.

The Moon has been acting on the Earth's tides for eons. This gravitational swelling of the tides has caused the Earth's rotation to slow from a 20-hour day some 400 million or so years ago to the 24-hour day we have now.

At the same time that the Earth's rotational energy is being "drawn down", the Earth and it's fluid tides are working on the Moon to try to speed up the Moon in its orbit. As the Moon is being influencedby the Earth and the tides to try to speed up, it is gradually drifting into a higher orbit.

Every year, the Earth loses somewhere between 2 and 7 one-millionths of a second of rotational speed(depending on whose measurements you go by). And every year the Moon drifts one and-a-half inches higher in its orbit.

The Law of Conservation of Energy (within the Earth-Moon system) prevails once again.

Answer 2

The moon actually is moving away from the earth at a rate of about 1 inch every year. The best theory for this is as follow..

Approximately 4.7 billion years ago a large asteroid hit the newly formed earth when it was still in its molten lava state. The large asteroid sent billions of bits of rocks in to outerspace where they orbited the earth for thousands of years until they eventually formed the moon we see today. Scientists have analyzed rock samples from the moon and have identified them as being very similar in composition to rocks and minerals found on the earth. Obviously, the moon fluctuates slightly in the orbit around the sun because of the gravity influenced between the two bodies. I hope this helps and is easily understandable. Good luck.

Answer 3

The moon causes a tidal "bulge" around the Earth. Because of Earth's rotation, this bulge is always a little ahead of the moon - in otherwords, the bulge isn't directly under the moon, but about an hour 'forward', due to Earth's rotation.

This bulge attracts the moon - speeding it up a little in it's orbit. The additional energy added to the lunar orbit makes the moon move away, just a little, each day.

Likewise - the moon is getting energy to increase it's orbit - and that energy is being robbed from Earth. Our day is slowing down, a little each day. Eventually, our day will match exactly the time it takes for the moon to orbit the Earth, and the moon & Earth will always face the same side to each other.

Answer 4

Tidal forces. The Moon pulls up tides on Earth which are dragged along by the rotation of the Earth. The slightly asymmetrical shape that this gives to the Earth causes gravity to be slightly off center and it exerts a force of the Moon to push it along in the same direction it is orbiting, which raises its orbit.

Answer 5

The Moon isn't being pulled extra beneficial away by using the solar's gravity. think of roughly it: the Moon and the Earth are at with regards to the comparable distance from the solar, with tiny month-to-month adjustments. The solar IS pulling the Moon, in spite of the shown fact that it is likewise pulling the Earth with very almost the comparable tension in keeping with kilogram. which skill the centripetal acceleration of the Moon is the comparable because of the fact the centripetal acceleration of the Earth, and one isn't shifting in the direction of the solar swifter than the different. besides, if that have been the reason, you may anticipate to be certain the Moon's orbit starting to be extra elongated in the direction of the solar. however the Earth-Moon distance is growing to be everywhere in the Moon's orbit, so there could desire to be yet another element at paintings. The Moon reasons a tidal bulge in Earth's oceans, which skill water dealing with in the direction of and removed from the Moon is stretched out somewhat. The effect isn't plenty, in comparison to the diameter of the Earth, in spite of the shown fact that this is genuine. If the Earth weren't rotating, the tidal bulge could line up completely with the Earth-Moon line. in spite of the shown fact that, the Earth IS rotating, and it sweeps the tidal bulge forward a tiny bit. because of the fact the mass of the tidal bulge is "forward" of the Moon, it reasons the Moon to advance up in its orbit. a miles better orbital velocity skill a much bigger orbit, and so each and every century the Moon strikes extremely extra beneficial out with the aid of tide-brought on acceleration. of direction, kinetic power can no longer basically be created like that. because of the fact the Moon effective factors kinetic power, it robs it from the Earth. because of the Earth's tidal interplay with the Moon, the Earth's day is likewise slowly getting longer. we will not see any noticible exchange in our lifetimes, yet in some million years we will could desire to invent new clocks if we are nonetheless around as a species.

Answer 6

its actually a very complex interaction. the moon pulls on the earth and the earth pulls back, but what most people dont know is that the tides are slightly behind the moon in its oribit, this is due to the minute but present time it takes for the gravity of the moon to affect earth. this 'lagging tide' pulls back on the moon and slows it down. the moon then moves father away in response. hope that wasnt to confusing!

Answer 7

If you mean moving away over time, then it's because of inertia.

If you take a rock and tie it to a string, then hold the string loosely in your hand a swing it around, it will tend to move away. This is centrifugal force. The rock's inertia, or tendency to stay in motion, wants it to move in a straight line, but the string is keeping it in a circular orbit. As the string's force weakens, the rock's inertia is able to get it going more or less in a straighter motion, and enlarging the orbit. The second you let go of the string the rock will fly off in a straight line, because that's where it's inertia wants it to go.

It works the same way with the moon and the earth.

Answer 8

The moon has an elliptical orbit-as do most of the other bodies in the solar system. That's why its distance from the earth varies.

Answer 9

for all al gore knows, its "global warming"

but really.....the earth does not have enough gravity to hold the moon, which is a quarter its size...in a perfect orbit, thus it slips away at least an inch every year.

Answer 10

I believe it will stop moving away once the earth stops rotating as its the energy it robs from the earth rotation through tidal action, slowly making our days longer which allows it to move away.

Basically i believe it robs energy from the earth through tidal action .The energy its robs is from the earths rotation and the energy it robs from the earth rotation puts energy into its angular momentum causing it to move slowly away from us