If the sun becomes smaller in proportion than the moon, it would set in stone the idea that the moon is falling.
Life is the pernicious set of circumstances that beg for us to choose either to lose the moon or to pull it closer.
So, as the perigee increases, can we determine the centres of it's elliptical focci and determine when the first eclipse occurs that is predicted to have no bleeding light.
In 2034 the moon will be closer than ever on November 25 but if the eclipse is on other months, when will the first bloodless eclipse occur?
Will that co-occur with legal allowance for life-to-life non-sexual (mitotic) human reproduction? Worldwide legal clones?
Due to tidal coupling the Moon is being accelerated in it's orbit so it in fact moving slowly away from us, so in fact annular eclipses will be come more common.
Dear Robert,
this is interesting... the tidal coupling dissipates energy ( gravitational energy?) of the system moon-earth... how come that the Moon gets farther rather than getting closer?? To tranist to higher orbits one body needs energy, where is this energy taken from??
In other words what is the energy in the reference frame of earth which allows the moon to be "accelerated" away?
Hi Stefano,
The Earth is spinning faster than the Moon orbits, so there a transfer of angular moment to the Moon. It's the Earth's rotational energy that is dissipated and that help the Moon go into a higher orbit. If the Earth didn't rotate then indeed the orbit would decay with energy going into spinning the Earth up and heat from tidal flexing.
THank you Robert,
I did not know it. So in order to preserve the global angular momentum, the rotational speed of earth got lower in the millennia and will get lower providing the Moon with higher orbits.
- Badges
- Science topic