sinkingship , 7 hours ago

If it had a stable orbit before and then slowed down, I thought it’ll get a more elliptical orbit, being both closer and further, or fall into Earth.

My logic was that a stable orbit closer to the center needs higher speeds to counter higher gravity and vice versa.

So if the moon would get hit in a way that makes it slow down and get pushed further away from Earth at the same time, it could keep a roundish orbit, or not?

What’s with that specific timeframe? Is it due to the orbit never being perfect? Or random slight influences from other not too far, heavy objects?

Thanks for the explanation, the moon being a little fast for it’s orbit and therefore slowly spiraling out of Earths gravity makes sense to me now.