March 30, 2024
The moon is moving farther away from Earth, at a rate of about 1 in (2.54 cm) every year. The gravitational force the moon exerts on the Earth is pulling energy from the Earth’s motion, which slowly pushes the moon further from us. This transfer of energy is also causing both the moon to take longer to orbit Earth, and the Earth to take longer to rotate on its axis. All these changes are incredibly small and unnoticeable in our lifetimes; however, they will add up over billions of years.
Total solar eclipses like the one seen in 2017 occur when the Moon passes in front of the Sun completely covering the solar disk. This phenomena will not occur forever because the Moon is slowly moving away from Earth. The image above was captured on August 21, 2027. Image credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani.
