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Astronomy and Cosmology
Astronomy and Astrophysics
What Could Cause the Earth's Rotation to Dramatically Slow Down?
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[QUOTE="Ken G, post: 6861306, member: 116697"] Yes, we can say that if there were no Moon and the Earth was rotating at 47 days, then the Sun's tidal effect would slow the Earth's spin and put that angular momentum into the Earth's orbit, eventually trying to make them equal each other at something even longer than 365 days. Now if the Moon is also there, tidally locked to the Earth at 47 days, most of the angular momentum internal to the Earth-Moon system is in the Moon's orbit, not the Earth's spin, so as the Sun tries to spin down the Earth, the Moon's angular momentum keeps getting dumped back into the Earth, as you say. This makes it take a lot longer for the Sun to slow the Earth down, but more importantly, it also pulls in the Moon as the Moon loses that excess angular momentum. [/QUOTE]
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What Could Cause the Earth's Rotation to Dramatically Slow Down?
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