The moon is moving away from the Earth

I went to see a comedian the other week, as it was Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and it was mentioned that the Moon is moving away from the Earth a little each year. I found this interesting because I don't really have much knowledge of how the Moon and the Earth interact with each other, so I decided to do a little Google investigation. During my intense investigation (I looked at the one website called astronomy.com), I discovered that the Moon revolves on its own axis, once for each time it passes around the Earth and the reason this occurs is due to Earth's superior gravitational pull. Additionally it tells (which I already knew) that the Moon's pull towards the Earth is what produces our tides.

This doesn't explain why the Moon is receding from the Earth, but the website provided a very scientific explanation. I won't go into the same detail as the website, but basically the Moon is not quite pulling at the Earth properly because the Earth spins faster than the Moon. This improper pulling on the Earth, in turn makes the Moon spin a little faster. The increased spin rate of the Moon then causes it to spin a little wider, so as it is taking a wider lap around the Earth, it is moving further and further away from the Earth. This movement will not be noticed in our lifetimes, however in a few million years, tides will be weaker than currently, the moon will no longer cause a full solar eclipse (it will look smaller as it is further away, and so won't be able to block out the full sun as it does now) and our days will be longer (currently they are increasing at a rate of about one second every 50,000 years). All in all what should have been a night of laughs, has turned into one of doom and gloom, but at least it won't be doom and gloom that will be affecting me in my lifetime, so there is always a silver lining!

To read a full scientific explanation, check out astronomy.com.