The moon is slowly moving away from Earth. At the time of its formation, the Moon was only 22,500 km from Earth, but there are several studies that reveal the distance is increasingly separated now.
British astronomer Edmond Halley first suspected the current Moon was shrinking nearly 300 years ago, after studying ancient eclipse records.
Suspicions were finally confirmed in the 1970s, when laser beams bouncing off mirrors mounted on the Moon by US and Soviet missions showed that it was moving away at a speed of 3.8 centimeters per year.
The distance between the Earth and the Moon is also driven by the effect of the Moon’s gravity on the rotating Earth. The tides in the oceans cause resistance and thus slow the rate of Earth’s rotation.
The effect of the loss of the Moon’s angular momentum makes it move away. The current distance between the Earth and the Moon is 402,336 kilometers, this is 17 times farther than the initial distance.
The moon is now continuously rotating away from Earth at a speed of 3.78 centimeters per year. This is almost the speed of growth of a human fingernail.
The Moon stays in its orbit due to the gravitational force exerted by the Earth, but the Moon also exerts a gravitational force on our planet. This causes the movement of the Earth’s oceans to form the Earth’s tidal path.
Due to the Earth’s rotation, this path is slightly ahead of the Moon’s trajectory. Some of the energy from the rotating Earth will be transferred to the trajectory through friction.
With the rotation it pushes the trajectory forward and makes the Earth in front of the Moon. This causes the Moon to be pushed into a higher orbit like a faster outer path.
This phenomenon is similar to the experience of a children’s merry-go-round. The faster the circle spins, the stronger the force that throws the player out.
But the energy gained when the Moon is pushed higher is offset by a reduction in the energy of its motion. So the acceleration exerted by Earth’s tides actually slows down the Moon.
Although 3.78 centimeters doesn’t seem like much, in the long term it can affect life on Earth, making the planet slow down.