xkcd

8904 readers

244 users here now

A community for a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

koraro

459

xkcd #2908: Moon Armor Index (imgs.xkcd.com)

submitted 8 months ago by randomaccount43543 to c/xkcd

49 comments fedilink hide all child comments

https://xkcd.com/2908

Alt text:

Astronomers are a little unsure of the applicability of this index, but NASA's Planetary Protection Officer is all in favor.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] teft 9 points 8 months ago

This is incorrect. The moon is moving away from the earth and will stop. At some point in the future the tidal forces will balance out and the earth-luna system will be tidally locked. From that point on they will remain locked in orbit neither moving away or towards one another unless some other large gravitational force perturbs them (e.g. an extra solar planet wandering through the solar system and passing by earth-luna).