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Joined 2 years ago
Cake day: July 5th, 2024
  • The moon is receding from the Earth and would eventually roughly double its orbital period, while Earth’s rotation would nearly stop (one rotation every 47 days), and both would be tidally locked to the other. The same side of the Earth would always face the moon, and the same side of the moon would always face the Earth (as happens currently).

    This is all assuming the system would continue unperturbed forever, however, it won’t. Before the above happens, the sun will turn into a red giant and the drag from the expanded atmosphere will slow down the orbits of both the Earth and Moon, eventually leading to them both ceasing to exist - the moon from reaching the Roche limit above the Earth, and the the Earth from entering the Sun’s photosphere and eventually spiraling into the core.