What is the impact of the moon's mass on Earth's orbit around the sun?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion explores the impact of the moon's mass on Earth's orbit around the sun, considering theoretical scenarios such as the moon's disappearance and its implications for Earth's position in the habitable zone. The scope includes conceptual reasoning and technical explanations related to orbital mechanics.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant questions how the moon's mass affects Earth's orbital distance and characteristics around the sun, particularly in a hypothetical scenario where the moon disappears.
  • Another participant argues that any change in Earth's orbit due to the moon's mass would be extremely small, noting the significant mass difference between the Earth-moon system and the sun.
  • A different viewpoint suggests that while the Earth-moon system orbits around their barycentre, the barycentre is located within the Earth, indicating minimal impact on Earth's solar orbit.
  • Another participant emphasizes that the moon's disappearance would not significantly affect Earth's orbit but would have severe implications for habitability due to its influence on ocean distribution and climate regulation.
  • One participant shares an experiment using a Gravity Simulator, stating that removing the moon at various points in its orbit shows no visual effect on Earth's solar orbit.
  • A comment is made about the potential for political discussions to derail the thread, suggesting that such topics are generally unproductive in this context.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree that the moon's mass has a negligible effect on Earth's orbit around the sun. However, there is disagreement regarding the broader implications of the moon's absence on Earth's habitability and environmental conditions.

Contextual Notes

The discussion includes assumptions about the mass ratios involved and the implications of the moon's influence on climate and ocean distribution, which remain unresolved. The exact nature of the relationship between the moon's mass and Earth's orbital characteristics is not fully explored.

ukmicky
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How much does the moons mass contribute to the Earth's orbital distance and characteristics around the sun.

If the mass of moon and the Earth were not joined At the hip or say the moon magically disappeared :rolleyes: would the Earth's orbit around the sun still be within the habitable zone or would we orbit further out.

Thank you for your answers :)
 
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Any change would be extremely, extremely small. While some orbital characteristics, like the period of the orbit, do vary with the mass of the orbiting body, this is only noticeable when the orbiting body's mass is a significant fraction of that of the body it orbits.

In the case of the Earth-moon and the Sun, the latter is 329,299 times the mass of the former pair together, and the moon is 1/81 the mass of the Earth. That small a change in the Earth-moon mass would not lead to any significant changes.
 
Thankyou for your reply
 
Since the Earth-moon system orbit around the barycentre, you can sort of think of the barycentre of the Earth-moon system orbiting the sun as opposed to the Earth orbiting around the sun. However, the barycentre is inside the Earth anyway, so the difference would indeed be slight.
 
as already answered by JAL, if the moon dissapeared, it would have almost no impact on the orbit, but the "habitability" of our dear mother would be severly questionned... The presence of the moon has a huge impact on the distribution of the oceans, and the climate regulation,
If it dissapeared, I am afraid the republican party would have to start believing in global warming...
 
Just for the fun of it, I tried it in Gravity Simulator. Deleting the Moon at various points in its orbit has no visual effect on the Earth's solar orbit.

Politics in threads like this is generally not a good idea. If someone disagrees with you, then the thread gets pulled way off topic.
 

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