Moon escaping our gravity

Linguo

When the Moon escapes our gravity does it means it's going to go crashing into another planet or what? And when would that happen?:D

Dr. Baltar

The moon is escaping our gravity?

Captain Chaos

Due to the way the Moon is in a face locked orbit around the Earth and effects tidal forces it is actually slowing the Earths rotation very slowly, this in turn is causing the Moon to slowly escape its current orbit. It's moving away at about 4cm per year.

Linguo

Yeah, what do you think will happen though when it escapes??Would have to crash into something!

oneillMan999

well it wud probably end up gettin caught in venus`gravity and go into an irregular orbit around that....but we ll be long long gone before anything like that happens!

mike65

It'll drift in Space (1999) where lads and lassies in groovy retro future uniforms shall encounter guest stars of the week.

DLohan

It's only moving about 1.5 cm per annum. Hardly anything to get excited about.

spacetweek

DLohan wrote: »

It's only moving about 1.5 cm per annum. Hardly anything to get excited about.

It's actually 1.5 inches which is around 4 centimeters. However, at this rate, even a billion years would only result in it being 40,000 km further away. This would though be enough to see the end of total solar eclipses, leaving only annular ones.

lostexpectation

anybody see this Canadian tv serial about the moon colliding with earth, somehow people survive??

its called impact.

Kevster

spacetweek wrote: »

It's actually 1.5 inches which is around 4 centimeters. However, at this rate, even a billion years would only result in it being 40,000 km further away. This would though be enough to see the end of total solar eclipses, leaving only annular ones.

Hang on... ...I'll get my ruler and go up to measure it. I'll be back by tea-time.

On another note, who's to say that it'll get locked into Venus' orbit? It may very well go anywhere, even coming crashing back to Earth (by first taking a detour)

Mahatma coat

it would make one hell of a comet :eek:

lucky-colm

spacetweek wrote: »

It's actually 1.5 inches which is around 4 centimeters. However, at this rate, even a billion years would only result in it being 40,000 km further away. This would though be enough to see the end of total solar eclipses, leaving only annular ones.

sorry to be a bit of a bore here but your calculation is wrong 1.5" is equivelant to roughly 6cm a difference 2cm or the width of your little finger, dosn't seem like a whole lot, but lets apply that slight difference to the above calculation and after 1billion years we find the moon is after moving 60,000km away and not 40,000km, a difference of 20,000km quite a difference.

however this is only accurate if it will remain steady at 1.5" per year for 1billion years, which is unlikely because as the moon moves further away the effect of earths gravitational pull on the moon will weaken and then the moons escape rate will begin to increase

marco_polo

Eh 1 inch = 2.54 centimeters

lucky-colm

marco_polo wrote: »

Eh 1 inch = 2.54 centimeters

srry (really feeling stupid sitting here):o

MrPirate

Linguo wrote: »

When the Moon escapes our gravity does it means it's going to go crashing into another planet or what? And when would that happen?:D

It just means that we need to man the harpoons.

Amalgam

Wouldn't a lack of tides lead to lifeless seas? Doesn't it have an important role, moving oxygen and sediment about?

I [heart] Space 1999.

DLohan

spacetweek wrote: »

It's actually 1.5 inches which is around 4 centimeters. However, at this rate, even a billion years would only result in it being 40,000 km further away. This would though be enough to see the end of total solar eclipses, leaving only annular ones.

I won't be around then so it will hardly concern me.

DLohan

DLohan wrote: »

I won't be around then so it will hardly concern me.

BTW, were you planning to be round then?

slade_x

Linguo wrote: »

When the Moon escapes our gravity does it means it's going to go crashing into another planet or what? And when would that happen?:D

The moon wont escape earths gravity, its orbit will slowly recede from earth until tidal forces have equalized the earths rotation with that of the moon. Of course this will take an inconceivable amount of time to happen, it will probably be an order of time longer than our solar system has existed and the sun will have left its main sequence

All that is happening is the moon is basically getting energy (angular momentum) from the earth which moves it into a higher orbit.