Every year, the Moon drifts 3.8 centimeters farther from Earth. Enter your birth year and see how much closer it was when you arrived.
The Moon is drifting away from Earth. Right now, it recedes at about 3.8 centimeters per year. That is about the rate your fingernails grow. You cannot see it. You cannot feel it. But the laser reflectors left on the Moon by Apollo astronauts measure it to the millimeter. Every year, the Moon is a little farther.
This happens because of tidal friction. The Moon's gravity pulls on our oceans, creating bulges. Earth spins faster than the Moon orbits, so the bulge gets pulled ahead of the Moon. That bulge tugs the Moon forward, giving it orbital energy. Energy goes in, orbit goes up. The Moon climbs. It costs us our spin. Earth's rotation slows by about 1.7 milliseconds every century. In 100 years, your day will be 2 milliseconds longer. You won't notice. But the Moon will.
When dinosaurs walked the Earth 100 million years ago, the Moon was 4,000 kilometers closer. A day on Earth was only 23 hours long. Total solar eclipses were longer and darker. The Moon loomed larger in the sky. Back then, a T-Rex looking up saw a Moon that filled more of the horizon. Today, the Moon is already small enough that annular eclipses happen — when the Moon is too far to cover the Sun completely, leaving a ring of fire.
In about 600 million years, the Moon will be so far that total solar eclipses will stop entirely. Only annular eclipses will remain. The sky will never go dark at midday again. The Sun will swallow the Moon before that happens — when it becomes a red giant. But long before then, the Moon will have left us to watch the sky alone. Every year you age, the Moon gets a fingernail-width farther. You are literally watching it leave.
3.8 centimeters per year. Measured by Apollo laser reflectors to within a fraction of a millimeter. That is about the speed your fingernails grow.
Tidal friction. The Moon's gravity creates ocean bulges on Earth. Earth's faster rotation drags those bulges ahead of the Moon, and the extra gravity tugs the Moon forward, boosting its orbit. Earth loses spin energy; the Moon gains orbital energy.
No. Before that happens, the Sun will become a red giant in about 5 billion years and swallow both Earth and the Moon. Long before that, total solar eclipses will stop in about 600 million years.
As the Moon drifts away, it appears smaller in the sky. Currently it is just barely the right size to cover the Sun. In 600 million years, it will be too small, and total solar eclipses will end. Only annular eclipses (ring of fire) will remain.