In H.G. Well’s 1899 novel ‘THE TIME MACHINE", the time traveller travels to the far future-to a timewhen the earth stops rotating. The descriptions of this sound haunting…" the eastern horizon was a deep indian red…while the west was black, with bright stars’…the sea was calm, with no waves"
Was Wells right? Will the moon eventually cause the earth to stop rotating?
Well, the moon will eventually “tidal lock” with Earth, in that one side of Earth will be forever facing it, but a solar tidal lock, which is what you’re describing will take a lot longer and the moon will have little to do with it.
Of course, long before either happens, the sun will leave the main sequence and swell into a red giant. You’ve got ~5 billion years. Enjoy.
I understand that our day gets shorter by a second every so many years. So I am guessing yes.
IIRC the moon will move farther away with time, so the gravitational effects, which so far have
not caused the Earth to tidally lock with the Moon, will get weaker with time. IOW it ain’t going
to happen.
Until we build Moon Base Alpha and decide to nuke our compost pile and fly off on the moon to explore the universe.
longer, actually. Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions
d’oh, that’s what I meant.
The moon gets farther away because it is “stealing” rotational energy from the earth. Thus, it will eventually tidally lock. Then, effects from the sun would cause the moon to start coming closer to the earth until it passes the Roche limit and breaks up into a glorious ring system.
Of course, that won’t actually happen because it would take something like a trillion years.
Dude, that is sooo last century…
Loved Space: 1999!
I know in one episode, Earth managed to communicate with the Alphans. Did they say what happened to the Earth after the Moon left?