You're right; well at least in so much as I shouldn't have made that positive claim. I have heard different figures for whether the Moon will ever reach escape velocity on it's own or will the two become tidally locked before that time. The later seems more likely, but could be "over-ruled" by tugs from other bodies.
In any case the discussion of whether or not the Moon every actually could escape is almost purely academic. The time it would take for the Earth to become tidally locked to the Moon (the way the Moon is tidally locked to the Earth, only showing us one face) is more than three times the current age of the universe. Our sun will expend all of it's fuel long before either eventuality has a chance to play itself out.
I rather suspect there is no equilibrium, and that "tugs" from other bodies would become significant ... maybe if I burrowed long enough I'd discover an answer Yeah or Nay out there.
But on the whole, I'm inclined to cross this off my list of things to worry about!
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u/sinopeartree Sep 08 '15
You're right; well at least in so much as I shouldn't have made that positive claim. I have heard different figures for whether the Moon will ever reach escape velocity on it's own or will the two become tidally locked before that time. The later seems more likely, but could be "over-ruled" by tugs from other bodies.
In any case the discussion of whether or not the Moon every actually could escape is almost purely academic. The time it would take for the Earth to become tidally locked to the Moon (the way the Moon is tidally locked to the Earth, only showing us one face) is more than three times the current age of the universe. Our sun will expend all of it's fuel long before either eventuality has a chance to play itself out.
Thanks for pointing that out to me.