Originally posted by gunnut
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Here, think ice skater moving arms in and out after the spin starts - arms in - speeds up, arms out, slows down.
So basically, the Earth-Moon system must extend its orbital arms because it is slowing down. Entropy's in there too - energy loss in any orbital system is NEVER zero, so over time all "close" orbital systems - solar systems, galaxies, etc. - will all drift farther and farther apart over many billions of years, eventually spreading out into a zero energy state at infinite distances from each other.
-dale
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