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“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. ...”