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What if the Sun did not turn into a Red Giant and the Moon moved out of its Orbit Around the Earth?

-- | March 17, 2015

Question: What effects would we see on Earth if the Sun wouldn’t turn into a Red Giant? If the Moon would move away slowly until extracted from its orbit, would that, for example, affect Earth’s axis? — Walle

Answer: If our Sun did not turn into a Red Giant, it should slowly cool over many millions of years, thus providing less and less energy to the Earth. Regarding your second question about the affect that changes in the Moon’s orbit would have on the Earth, it would certainly affect the size and frequency of ocean tides. The Moon also has a stabilizing effect on the tilt of the Earth’s axis, so if it moved farther away from us the variations in the tilt of the Earth’s axis would likely become more extreme (i.e. the Earth’s axial tilt would be less stable with time).

Jeff Mangum

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