Okay, I have no idea how true this is, but I learned in middle/high school that with each orbit the moon gets further away from the earth and in a couple million years it might get so far away that the earth won’t even have a moon anymore. Which makes me wonder… how stable is Earth’s orbit? Like what’s keeping us from getting too far away and flying off into space? Or is there a possibility of that happening ever? I’m so curious
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The ELI5 answer that as the Moon pulls the tides on Earth, the Tides pushes the Moon away.
This section from a BBC article from 2011 gives a more in-depth explaination:
> Due to the rotation of the Earth, this tidal bulge actually sits slightly ahead of the Moon. Some of the energy of the spinning Earth gets transferred to the tidal bulge via friction.
>This drives the bulge forward, keeping it ahead of the Moon. The tidal bulge feeds a small amount of energy into the Moon, pushing it into a higher orbit like the faster, outside lanes of a test track.
>This phenomenon is similar to the experience one feels on a children’s roundabout. The faster the roundabout spins the stronger the feeling of being slung outwards.
>But the energy gained as the Moon is pushed higher is balanced by a reduction in the energy of its motion – so an acceleration provided by the Earth’s tides is actually slowing the Moon down.
The Moon actually keeps the Earth relatively stable, keeping seasonal variances down to a minimum.
The Earth is moving away from the Sun, just at an inconsequential rate over the lifetime of the Sun. Earth’s orbit might reach 1.01-1.03 AU before it’s engulfed by the Sun.
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