From: "Andrew Schott" 
To: 
Reply-To: "Andrew Schott" 


According to someone who has waaaaaay too much spare time on their hands,
the Earth/Moon system will eventually reach equilibrium in many million
years from now.  The calculated balance will occur when the Moon is much
farther out than it is now and the Earth is turning much slower than it is.
 If I remember right, the Earth and the Moon will both have a 44 day long
cycle with the Earth and Moon both "Face-locked" like the Moon is
now.  If you make it to that day in the future, you'll have to travel to
the eastern hemisphere to see the Moon as it will be geostationary in the
sky and fixed to a point somewhere over the Indian Ocean.  It'll sit in one
spot in the sky and go through all it's phases every 44 days.  From the
Moon, the Earth will appear to do the same.

Won't be long and we'll have no more total solar eclipses!

(I like it the way it is now so I'm not waiting for that to happen:-)

Andrew Schott



----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Holm" 
To: 
Sent: Saturday, July 05, 2003 10:49 AM Subject: Re: ATM re: Something to think about


>
> > At what point will the earth's mass finally draw the moon to earth?
> >
>
> I think I read in S&T a few years back that the situation is a lot weirder
than
> one might imagine.  By tidal drag, the moon is actually stealing rotational
> energy from the earth.  The energy is going into the moon's orbit, so that
the
> moon is actually climbing!  I forget whether they said the moon will
eventually
> reach escape velocity, or whether the earth will run out of rotational energy
first.
>
> I suppose if it escapes, then the two would be in very close solar orbits and
> the risk of collision would be real.
>
> Mark Holm
> mdholm{at}telerama.com
>
>
>
>
>

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