Why Doesn't the Moon Fall Down?

This 'Ask an Astronomer' episode explains how orbits work.

• Category

  Education

[dingo Rex]

looped

[SpitzerJim]

You try getting good audio on the side of a telescope dome on top of a mountain! ;p

[queendagmar]

every sun eclips the sun gets less covered by the moon. this shows the moon is moving away from the earth. i cant explain but it is true.

[Omid45]

I wonder what would happen if Earth were to escape Sun's gravity or fall to it. Imagine Earth accelerating!!! The whole earth would become like a fighter jet. Everyone on earth would feel a lot of G's lol. I wonder how that would feel?

[Jacob Brown]

....yah.

[SirSpoon84]

sorry lady, your wrong

[ink4852]

When I heard that I was like "What?"

[Deed1992]

apparently the moon is moving away from the earth at a rate of about 3.8 centimeters per year

[Remousamavi]

Accurate to the first part. But if the moon were going slower or faster, it would simply take an elliptical orbit rather than circular. You'd really have to slow it down a hell of a lot before its path came near enough to the earth for the moon to collide with it.

[FatCrayola]

its 11km/h going up so that gravity doesnt pull it back down i think

[tennisrules621]

we already do. we use planets like mars and jupiter to get space craft to gain speed when traveling to the outer solar system

[mszs]

Even the fastest moving tennis ball will come back to earth? No! Of course, no one could throw that fast or it may vaporize while flying through the air. How much is the escape velocity?

11km/sec?