Earth and the Moon

[Beswad]

What would happen if the Moon stray a few million miles closer to Earth?

[Phantaxus]

The moon is only a quarter of a million miles away at the moment!

[OBonio]

Goodbye earth.

[spiff]

Not being funny, but it aint gonna happen. In the past, ie millions of years ago,the moon was far closer to the earth than it is today. Over time the moon has moved further and further away. This is still the case, and even though the moon will always be gravitationally locked to our planet,it will NEVER get closer. Hope this helps. xx

[ezapf]

Yeah but what if, Spiff?

[spiff]

ezapf- fair play it could happen, but only if there was a massive body hurtling towards the moon that was huge enough to alter its orbit. That being the case, something that could do that in the first place would be more of a threat to the Earth than the Moon would be! xx

[ezapf]

Ok, so what if the moon never made it as far away as it is. How would the earth be different if the moon was only half the distance that it is. I think this is what Starscream was getting at.

[spiff]

ezaapf- it could'nt be; 'cos of it's and our planets mass. if it was half as massive and half the distance away,there would be no difference.It has to be at the distance it is. It can't be any closer than it is now. If it was somehow transported immediately to half it's distance though, there'd be MASSIVE tidal and seismic disruption though. xx

[Dagman]

and they'd pull together and collide!

[ianess]

Hey...lighten up........it`s Christmas!

It`s only a matter of time before we`re all wiped out in some supreme disaster but why worry?.....after all George Dubya and Tony Bliar will have a cunning plan resulting in peace and universal tranquility.  Just look East to Baghdad as an example.

Be Happy!

[magicdice]

ummmmmm it'd somehow be INSIDE the earth?

 

ianess you're awesome

[hopalong]

The moon is 224k from the earth

[brachiopod]

Lowestoft is 224 Km from me.

What's '224k' ?