Orbital Evidence
There are several peculiar features of the Moon that science has difficulty explaining (11). They include the unusual “not round” shape of the Moon, the heat source for the lunar mare, the Moon’s tidally locked orbit about the Earth, the mass concentrations (mascons) centered on the mare and the retreat of the Moon from the Earth. These are well studied and understood phenomena but all lack an explanation of origin. These physical features are all evidence of the “energy sink” of a close lunar approach to the Earth and ultimately capture.
Time Distance Dilemma
The present location of the Moon is approximately 240,000 mi. from Earth or 60 Earth radii (12). The Moon is retreating from the Earth at approximately 1.5 inches per year and accelerating (13). The understood lifetime of the Earth-Moon system is assumed to be the age of the solar system or on the order of 4-4.5 billion years.
The problem is basically this: if the Moon originated at the Roche limit, which is the inner most place upon which it is agreed that the Moon could have formed at the beginning of the solar system, and it is assumed to retreat at a relatively constant rate from the Earth, then the Moon is too close. “Unless present estimates of acceleration are vastly in error only a veritable energy sink can solve the time scale problem (14).” This is a time problem; just too much time has passed for the Moon to still be so close.
To make matters worse, there is an observable excess of angular momentum in the Earth-Moon system and it is clear that some extra energy has somehow been introduced into the system.
Angular Momentum
The angular momentum of the Earth-Moon system is a one-of-a-kind in our solar system. The Moon’s motion does not fit the fundamental laws of the universe. With the Earth-Moon system, the Moon is actually retreating from the Earth and its retreat is accelerating. It was the natural philospher Kant in 1754 who first hypothesized this effect. Apollo missions some two hundred years later proved this hypothesis.
A modern capture model explains this by a simple method. The Moon is not in its original orbit nor has it obtained its final orbit. The Moon is currently in a temporary and somewhat unstable orbit. It also seems that the Moon may eventually separate again from the Earth.
Did you know?
By placing a mirror on the Moon and measuring the time it takes light to pass to and from the mirror, Apollo missions proved that the Moon is actually retreating.
Gravitational energy was transferred and focused into the masses of the Moon and Earth. The resulting solid body tides focused heating within the Earth and Moon. This secondary heating manifested itself in the formation of the mare on the Moon and developing tectonic activity on Earth.
Any energy left over from the Moon’s original heliocentric orbit shows itself in the excessive angular momentum we see in the Earth-Moon system today. Dissipation of the Moon’s motion into heating of the Earth’s interior can account for a portion of the unusual and unaccounted secular acceleration of the system (15).
Orbital Irregularities
The solar system is an incredibly precise place and the orbital state of the planets and regular satellites are extremely constant. The outer planets locations were predicted, prior to their discoveries, from the slightest wobble detected in the orbits of the inner known planets. Yet in our own Earth-Moon system there is so much movement and wobble that we cannot even predict where our own planet will be in a few weeks (16).
The wobble of th Earth’s axis, part of which is understood and part of which defies prediction, is of major importance to science today. It causes a current technical problem for the maintaining of man-made satellites in their correct orbits. The unpredictable part of the wobble is known as Chandler’s wobble. A modern lunar capture model is particularly good at answering the orbital irregularities.