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Related question, how much do tidal forces inside the planet contribute vs tidal forces from the ocean?

• queuebert 3y ago
  The ocean is a tiny fraction of the planetary mass, so it's mostly the bulk mass of the planet. If you watch the moon forming simulation posted here, you can see right before impact the bulging of Theia toward Earth. This demonstrates the non-rigidity of planets pretty well. This happens to a much smaller extent between the moon and Earth and is the reason why the moon is tidally locked (one side always faces us) and is slowly moving away from us -- the tidal forces are transferring angular momentum from the Earth to the moon. Consequently as the moon moves farther away, the length of our day will increase.
  • oooyay 3y ago
    Kind of a naive question, but would it be possible to move the moon back to a prior position? Would that even be a good idea?
    • staplers 3y ago
      An earth day will extend by an hour in 160 million years, it's not something to worry about.