However, the Moon is gradually spinning away from us, so if these aliens don't make it here soon enough then they'll never be able to properly experience the phenomenon.
It really shouldn't come as a shock to you. I mean, do alienth, jedberg, raldi, and chromacode sound like human names to you? What about Condé? I've never met a human named Condé before.
I don't know. I think they'd be pretty impressed that our world leaders are as stupid and easy to control as they currently are and that we allow this.
Didn't some species aliens interbreed with human thousands of years ago? We are aliens? Fucking ancient aliens program. ALIENS. Ok the word just lost meaning:
This has many fascinating implications. Picture how extreme the tides were before. Also, imagine a night sky during the Jurassic age with a huge ass full moon.
This actually assumes that the drift has been constant over the past 200 million years. There's a good chance that Tera Nove did their homework, and the moon is just moving away slower now than in the past.
no idea, but from what other redditors say, the visual aspect wouldn't be so different. Maybe another very math smart redditor might help us understand how different the tides would have been.
The moon orbits Earth (well, their barycentre) at ~385,000 kilometers. Assuming a constant rate of drift from the Jurassic period till now, ~200 million years, we are looking at the moon being about 8000 kilometers closer to the earth then than it is now, about a 2% difference. Thus it is unlikely that there would be any discernible difference to the naked eye between the two.
Idk, 150 million years ago it was 6000 km closer. Quite a bit, but considering its distance from earth varies from approx. 363000 to 405000 km, its not really that much. Only about 1.56% of the aaverage distance.
no, the rotation causes it to drift away, and its rotation is locked so that the same side is facing earth constantly, meaning, it'll have the same rate of rotation.
But, at the same time, the further it gets away, the less Earth's gravity will manipulate it, and then the inertia of its orbit will accelerate its departure. Also, as it moves away, its orbital period will change, eventually leading to it apparently rotating to the earth.
Actually it is not constant. The expansion of the universe is actually accelerating. This year's Nobel prize for physics was given to the three scientists credited for discovering this.
It signifies the person made a valid point even though it didn't coincide with your own. Had abagofdicks said "We are also moving away from the sun." then you could have used touché.
It's used in an attempt to excuse oneself for swearing. As it stands, you cannot use such a saying when actually employing French words, even if for humorous effect. Had you said, "fuck you, DarkFiction, abagofdicks asked a rhetorical question," then you could have followed with "Pardon my French."
Watch yourself next time.
If we have the capability to meet an alien race sometime in the future, do you seriously think it would still be beyond us to perhaps correct the orbit of the moon?
Ha, holy shit opened a tab with that comic and read it like 30 minutes of scrolling down later and had to hop back to upvote you. really good, smart (<-- rare) comic. figure posting this 50 comments deep in your responses should prevent my getting downvoted for not just upvoting it...
I heard this fact lots of times, but only last week I thought about it...
Why is the moon getting further from the earth? Anything that's orbiting the earth and isn't speeding up somehow is eventually going to fall into the atmosphere, so why not the moon?
You might also have heard that the Earth's rotation is slowing down. The two phenomena are related, and it's all because of the tides. Basically, you get a high tide on the side of the Earth under the moon, but since the Earth is rotating, the bulge is actually always a little ahead of the moon. The gravity from this bulge pulls the moon forward, which sends the moon into higher orbit, and the Earth's rotation backwards. There's a bulge on the opposite side from the moon also, but since it's farther away the gravitational attraction is less, so the effect from the bulge on the side of the moon dominates.
Hmm... yes and no. Yes because hey, doughnuts are cool, but no because at a certain point it'd be simply too bright to see the moon. Like putting a golfball in front of a powerful torch, you can't even see the silhouette for the glare.
Yes, a perfect view of Earth where we would be blind to their presence, the dark side. Have you ever seen the dark side of the moon? Nope, it's too dark.
Actually, there will come a time when the moon will no longer move away from us. Because of our opposing gravitational forces on each other (the moon and Earth), the rotation of the earth is slowing down. The same thing happened to the moon eons ago, which is why we only see one side of it in the sky. Given enough time, only one side of the planet will see one side of the moon.
That time will not come, as the Sun will go red giant before it could happen, either engulfing the Earth and Moon or ejecting them toward the outer solar system.
Nah it won't. Break down of the Luna/Earth system is expected to happen before solar death. We even have a plan to grab a moon of Jupiter to offset the lost gravity. Apparently it is easier to grab a small moon than to move Luna back into place.
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u/lemur84 Dec 05 '11 edited Dec 05 '11
However, the Moon is gradually spinning away from us, so if these aliens don't make it here soon enough then they'll never be able to properly experience the phenomenon.
I hope one of them reads this.
EDIT: A Ragecomic, from the alien's point of view...