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would the moon be able to orbit at its current angular speed / period as it does currently if it was closer and still maintain a constant distance? i would thi
by leeoniya 12y ago
would the moon be able to orbit at its current angular speed / period as it does currently if it was closer and still maintain a constant distance?
i would think it would need to orbit much faster because the gravitational pull would be several fold larger. proportionally if it orbits at 27 days currently, it would need to orbit at (238,000 / (2160/2 + 260)) = 177.6x faster...and that's if gravity effects were linear, which they arent...they're inverse square.
- falcolas 12y agoThis was addressed in the article, the new orbit period would be 90 minutes. Scary fast, for the size and distance of the moon.
- leeoniya 12y agoah, i'll read next time :) it would likely also distort the earth significantly and tides would become hourly tsunamis.
- delinka 12y agoLikely we'd be 'quake-ridden as well. edit: terrible, awful grammar
- milesskorpen 12y ago... which is what the whole article is about.
- lutorm 12y agoYou really didn't read the article, did you? ;-)
- leeoniya 12y agofml, i meant as in "after work"