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Re^2: How do you plan on spending your leap second?

by Aristotle (Chancellor)
on Dec 26, 2005 at 11:37 UTC ( [id://519116]=note: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


in reply to Re: How do you plan on spending your leap second?
in thread How do you plan on spending your leap second?

Certainly not within the Sun’s lifetime. The rate of deceleration is decreasing. What happens is that the tidal wave that the Moon pulls around the Earth is actually at an angle from the line that connects the gravitational centres of Earth and Moon, and is big enough to tug at the Moon. So the Moon gains momentum at the expense of Earth’s torque and inches to an ever higher orbit. (See an illuminating explanation of how the tides really work.)

In about two billion years (if memory serves) the Moon will be too far away to cause a totality when transiting in front of the Sun during solar eclipses. We live today in the era of the Earth-Moon system where the Moon is just far enough away to cover the Sun’s disc exactly in a total eclipse that leaves the corona visible.

Makeshifts last the longest.

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