If the Moon moves out of Earth’s orbit, what would happen? Does the Moon’s magnetism affect Earth life so much that we can’t survive without it?
The Moon has no global magnetic field, and even if it did, it would not affect life on Earth. As to the Moon changing its orbit, or moving out of orbit around the Earth, this sort of thing is not possible. Only in bad Hollywood films do planets or moons change their orbits arbitrarily.
David Morrison
NLSI Interim Director
January 3, 2008