What changes will occur on Earth as the moon moves further away from us (continued)?
James Fradgley
Wimborne Minster, Dorset, UK
I have a few thoughts on this. In 200 million years, the day length will have increased about 5 per cent, so not hugely significant. The sun is getting brighter, by about 1 per cent in 200 million years, and so in a few hundred million years we will need no greenhouse effects at all, after which it will just get hotter and hotter. After something over 1 billion years, all the oceans will have boiled away, and Earth will be rather like Venus is today.
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I recall two occasions when I actually woke up from a deep sleep in the middle of a big sneeze (the 鈥渃hoo鈥� part of 鈥渁h-choo鈥�)
As for Earth鈥檚 axial tilt, or obliquity, as the moon recedes, some gravitational interactions will arise that will throw it all over the place. But not for a billion years or so, so not our problem! But let鈥檚 put on our thinking caps anyway and do something about it. Maybe move Earth away from the sun, terraform Mars, etc!
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