Decoding unusual paths of the moon

The moon flies around the earth not in a circle, but on an eccentric orbit. Scientists have released a solution to this mystery: It is due to the strong attraction from Jupiter and Venus. Dr. Matija Cuk from the University of British Columbia published the study in the journal Science today.

The idea that other planets can entice the moon seems too hype, because the attraction of these planets, which are tens of millions of kilometers away, is very small.

However, Cuk has elaborated on this issue many times as the moon's, Venus's and Jupiter's trajectories are in sync, and are found over a very long time and repeated attraction, two The planet can cause a synergistic effect.

This resonance phenomenon pulled the moon out of its inherent circular orbit and elongated it.

"This is the first time humans have shown that the moon is affected by other planets on a large scale," Cuk said.

An effective way to visualize this process is to imagine an adult pushing a child on a swing, explains Dr. Doug Hamilton, an orbit investigator at the University of Maryland. If you stand behind the child and push gently at the right time, and the child flexes the rhythm, the swing will go up forever.

But if you push the swing from the side, in any direction and have no rhythm, there will be no synergistic effect, no jump and you will discourage the child.

The most obvious result of this eccentricity is that in some eclipses (the moon shines the sun), the moon is farther away on its distorted orbit and it does not completely cover the sun, creating solar eclipse

T. An