If it had a stable orbit before and then slowed down, I thought it’ll get a more elliptical orbit, being both closer and further, or fall into Earth.
My logic was that a stable orbit closer to the center needs higher speeds to counter higher gravity and vice versa.
So if the moon would get hit in a way that makes it slow down and get pushed further away from Earth at the same time, it could keep a roundish orbit, or not?
What’s with that specific timeframe? Is it due to the orbit never being perfect? Or random slight influences from other not too far, heavy objects?
Thanks for the explanation, the moon being a little fast for it’s orbit and therefore slowly spiraling out of Earths gravity makes sense to me now.
Jumuta@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Unfortunately that’s not how orbital mechanics works :(
If the moon had instantaneously more speed than the earth can hold onto (e.g. more centrifugal ‘force’ than balanced by the gravitational force), the moon will accelerate up, until the forces become balanced. This makes a elliptical orbit, like this:
elliptical orbit gif
I think the only way the moon could be getting further away is if the earth was losing mass or the moon was gaining energy somehow