Why isn the moon headed to the earth?
Yeah, don’t feel stupid. Because the short answer to your question is: it’s complicated. The reason satellites are easy to understand is because they’re artificially simple. We launched them, and we determined their orbits. Nature, though far more beautiful, also is far more complex. NoMich: The above-cited Wikipedia article has a good explanation: “This effect is expected to continue until the spin of the Earth has slowed to match the orbital period of the Moon. At that point the tidal effect of the Sun will dominate, further slowing the Earth and thereafter causing the orbit of the Moon to steadily shrink. However these effects would not be expected to occur until long after the Sun has become a red giant.” So basically, there’s nothing to worry about. The only immediate changes will be a slight lengthening of the day and a slight diminishing in the size of the tides. Nothing that will be noticeable in day-to-day life.
