Moon is ‘drifting away from Earth’ – and it’s going to change the length of a day

THE Moon is slowly moving away from Earth, a shock new study has revealed.

It’s currently shifting 3.8cm further from our planet each year – and has been doing for billions before that.

Today, the Moon is 238,855 miles away, but it was once a lot closer.

Some 2.45billion years ago, it was just under 200,000 miles out.

The Moon also has a braking effect on Earth, meaning the further it goes the longer a day lasts.

So back 2.45billion years ago there were actually 16.9 hours in the day, compared to the 24 hours we have now.

This means a whole day will grow even more in length, though it will take millions of years before it even begins to make a difference.

We’ve actually known for sometime that the Moon is gradually backing off.

During the 1969 Apollo missions, experts noticed something strange about the reflective panels installed on the lunar surface.

It’s at this point that Nasa realised our closest neighbour is moving 3.8cm away with every passing year.

Scientists have now backed this up and delved into the distant past by looking at a gorge in Australia.

They studied ancient layers of rock from the Karijini National Park in the west of the country.

“It’s quite amazing that past solar system dynamics can be determined from small variations in ancient sedimentary rocks,” Professor Joshua Davies and researcher Margriet Lantink wrote on The Conversation.

“However, one important data point doesn’t give us a full understanding of the evolution of the Earth-moon system.”

Their findings are published in the PNAS journal.

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