Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2016 September 7 
Posted on 09/07/2016 5:15:54 AM PDT by ThomasMore
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2016 September 7
Explanation: September's eclipse of the Sun is documented in the 68 frames of this timelapse composite. Starting at 1pm local time a frame every 4 minutes follow's the progress of the New Moon across the solar disk. Taken near the centerline of the narrow eclipse path, the series of exposures ends with a golden sunset. Balanced rock cairns in the foreground line a beach on the southern side of Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean, near the village of Etang-Salé. Of course, the close balance in apparent size creates drama in eclipses of the Sun by the Moon as seen from planet Earth. In an annular eclipse, the Moon's silhouette is just small enough to show the solar disk as a narrow ring-of-fire at maximum eclipse phase.
(Excerpt) Read more at apod.nasa.gov ...
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Eye In The Sky
The Alan Parsons Project
Written by Alan Parsons, Eric Woolfson, Luiz Antonio Batista Montagna Luiz Batista, Wanderley Bertazzo Pinto Leley Bertazzo • Copyright © Universal Music Publishing Group
Don’t think sorry’s easily said
Don’t try turning tables instead
You’ve taken lots of Chances before
But I’m not gonna give anymore
Don’t ask me
That’s how it goes
Cause part of me knows what you’re thinkin’
Don’t say words you’re gonna regret
Don’t let the fire rush to your head
I’ve heard the accusation before
And I ain’t gonna take any more
Believe me
The sun in your Eyes
Made some of the lies worth believing
I am the eye in the sky
Looking at you
I can read your mind
I am the maker of rules
Dealing with fools
I can cheat you blind
And I don’t need to see any more
To know that
I can read your mind, I can read your mind
Don’t leave false illusions behind
Don’t cry cause I ain’t changing my mind
So find another fool like before
Cause I ain’t gonna live anymore believing
Some of the lies while all of the signs are deceiving
I am the eye in the sky
Looking at you
I can read your mind
I am the maker of rules
Dealing with fools
I can cheat you blind
And I don’t need to see any more
To know that
I can read your mind, I can read your mind
....and eventually it will reach a point where it will slowly start spiraling back in..............
Lol! Never heard that one before. What they think is it (the Moon) will eventually leave Earth's gravitational grip completely. And when it does the Earth will begin to wobble uncontrollably on its axis. It is the Moon that helps Earth maintain its 23.5 degree tilt axis. This would of course put an end to the familiar 4 seasons. Not the singing group. They split up years ago.
I read it in a scientific book years ago (Clarke?).
It’s premise was that the Earth would eventually start pulling it back in, slowly at first, then increasing speed as it plunges back into the gravity well.
At some point, the Earth’s gravity would pull the Moon apart and it would break up into many large and small chunks, banging together, and getting smaller, until they became a RING around the Earth, just like the Jovian planets have!
Of course, some of the larger chunks would continue their fall into the Earth’s atmosphere, burn up or explode causing huge craters and massive destruction.................
But that would not happen for several hundreds of thousands of years in the future.
We could, I hope, find a way to stabilize the Moon’s orbit by then..................
Yes, but they pretty much know today that the Moon is slowing drifting away. They can measure the Earth-Moon distance very accurately today with lasers. Computers simply calculate the travel time for a light beam sent there and back. In fact, they even use the technique to measure continental drift and the rising of mountain ranges.
“The simulations also imply that at the time of its formation, the Moon sat much closer to the Earth - a mere 22,500km (14,000 miles) away, compared with the quarter of a million miles (402,336 km) between the Earth and the Moon today.
The Moon continues to spin away from the Earth, at the rate of 3.78cm (1.48in) per year, at about the same speed at which our fingernails grow.
Without the Moon, the Earth could slow down enough to become unstable, but this would take billions of years and it may never happen at all.
The migration of the Moon away from the Earth is mainly due to the action of the Earth’s tides.
The Moon is kept in orbit by the gravitational force that the Earth exerts on it, but the Moon also exerts a gravitational force on our planet and this causes the movement of the Earth’s oceans to form a tidal bulge.
Due to the rotation of the Earth, this tidal bulge actually sits slightly ahead of the Moon. Some of the energy of the spinning Earth gets transferred to the tidal bulge via friction.
This drives the bulge forward, keeping it ahead of the Moon. The tidal bulge feeds a small amount of energy into the Moon, pushing it into a higher orbit like the faster, outside lanes of a test track.
This phenomenon is similar to the experience one feels on a children’s roundabout. The faster the roundabout spins the stronger the feeling of being slung outwards.
“As the Earth’s rotation slows down, our whole planet may start to slowly wobble and this will have a devastating effect on our seasons” —Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock
But the energy gained as the Moon is pushed higher is balanced by a reduction in the energy of its motion - so an acceleration provided by the Earth’s tides is actually slowing the Moon down.
While 3.78cm may not seem like much, this small difference over a long enough period of time could affect life on Earth, making the planet slow down.
On early Earth, when the Moon was newly formed, days were five hours long, but with the Moon’s braking effect operating on the Earth for the last 4.5bn years, days have slowed down to the 24 hours that we are familiar with now, and they will continue to slow down in the future. ...”
more at link.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-12311119
Correct, and when the balance is at that point where the Moon's motion is slowed enough, it will start to fall back down toward the Earth, inexorably and perhaps fatally, for whoever is left on the Earth at that time, perhaps millions of years in the future...............
Seems there’s a little of both going. Which effect actually wins out over time, we’ll have to wait a billion or so years to find out. Would you care to make a wager now? I’ll bet five bucks the drifting away effect wins out. Not sure what $5 will be worth in a billion years. I wonder if FR will still be around? :)
In a billion years everybody will just move to another planet.............or galaxy..........
Even if ever possible, why leave the galaxy? We have something like 200-300 billion stars here, some of which will almost certainly be somewhat earth-like.
Even if ever possible, why leave the galaxy? We have something like 200-300 billion stars here, some of which will almost certainly have planets around them which are somewhat earth-like.
Well, you know the old saying, “There goes the neighborhood!”..............
Those darn “aliens” moving in messing the neighborhood up!
Another beautiful image, Mr. Moore! The time lapse images look as if they were a string of pearls to me.
Obviously not a scientist, but I did read everyone’s posts.
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