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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 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.



This was addressed in the article, the new orbit period would be 90 minutes. Scary fast, for the size and distance of the moon.


ah, i'll read next time :)

it would likely also distort the earth significantly and tides would become hourly tsunamis.


Likely we'd be 'quake-ridden as well.

edit: terrible, awful grammar


You really didn't read the article, did you? ;-)


fml, i meant as in "after work"


... which is what the whole article is about.




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