The Moon is slowly moving away from the Earth, possibly being pulled into the Sun and disappearing.

Our Earth may one day have no Moon .

The moon plays an important role for the Earth. (Illustration: Pixabay).

The Moon has existed for 4.5 billion years, about 1,000 years before our planet. The role of this natural satellite is important because it helps make Earth a more habitable planet by slowing down the wobble of the Earth's axis, resulting in less temperature variation. It also creates the tides that have guided humanity for thousands of years.

And recently, scientists have discovered that the Moon is gradually moving away from the Earth.

The Moon is the only natural satellite that orbits the Earth. It was previously thought that the Moon maintained a constant distance from the Earth due to its gravity, but the new findings raise a number of questions about the Moon. According to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), the Moon is drifting away from the Earth at a rate of 3.8 centimeters per year.

According to Professor Joshua Davies of the University of Quebec in Montréal, the new discovery of the increasing distance between the Moon and the Earth is very interesting.

Although scientists have predicted this phenomenon for centuries, they can now confirm that the Moon was once very close to Earth, about 250,000km closer than it is today.

Simulations of the evolution of the Earth-Moon system show that at this rate of separation, the Moon will stop moving away from Earth in about 15 billion years. And the Sun will enter a dangerous 'Red Giant' phase in about 6-7 billion years, when it will expand 100 times in size, engulfing nearby planets.

And scientists believe that if the Moon separated from the Earth, it would be pulled into the Sun and disappear.

The Moon's gradual retreat has also affected Earth's climate. While these changes are small in the short term, the effects over billions of years become more pronounced.