Solar Week - Ask a Question



Come here during Solar Week (next one: March 22-26, 2021) to interact. To post a question, click on your area of interest from the topics below, and then click on the "Ask New Question" button. Or EMAIL or tweet or plant in Answer Garden your question about the Sun or life as a scientist to us -- and watch for it to appear here.  You can also visit our FAQs (frequently asked questions). In between Solar Weeks in October and March, you can view all the archives here.

PrevPrev Go to previous topic
NextNext Go to next topic
Last Post 3/19/2008 11:03 AM by  John Vallerga
moon/sun
 1 Replies
Sort:
You are not authorized to post a reply.
Author Messages

Anonymous





Posts:


--
3/19/2008 6:57 AM

    what would happen if the moon fell out of orbit?what would happen if the sun or moon was hit with a meteor? margaux c. (FWMS)


    John Vallerga



    New Member


    Posts:7
    New Member


    --
    3/19/2008 11:03 AM

    Don't worry, the moon can't fall out of orbit, it is going too fast around the Earth. It stays in orbit because the pull of the Earths' gravity balances the centrifugal force of its motion, like a ball on a string spun around your body. To slow the moon down would require a collision with a very very massive body in the solar system, and such a free moving body of that size does not exist or we would have seen it by now with our telescopes.

    The Sun and Moon are hit by meteors all the time, so is the Earth. They have very little mass, so do not affect the orbits. The can cause craters, and that is what caused all the craters on the moon. However, most of the craters are billions of years old, when the solar system had many more rocks and asteroids flying around. Most of those are gone now, swept up by all the planets and the Sun.

    John Vallerga

    You are not authorized to post a reply.


    Twitter Feed

    Scientist Leaderboard

    Name # of replies
    Multiverse skin is based on Greytness by Adammer