Is the moon slowly drifting into space, slowly crashing into earth, or circling in the same orbit forever?

BRY2K

It's counterintuitive, but the moon's orbit is getting larger. It's not a big effect -- about 1.5 inches per year (and the moon's orbit has a radius of 239,000 miles) -- but it's definitely there! As the earth's spin slows down, the moon has to move outward to keep something called "angular momentum" constant. We have a similar situation with a twirling skater who slows herself down by putting her arms out. If you think of the moon here as the skater's hands and the earth as her body you get the idea. Well, the earth is slowing down so it's losing energy. Some of the energy lost goes into heat (friction from the "kneading") and some goes into pushing the moon away. http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2007/02/19/is_the_moon_really_moving_away_from_the_earth/ Apr 05 08, 7:46 PM