This is entirely science fiction speculation, and I’m trying to ballpark some ideas for a sci fi short story I’ve been pondering, but where the moon to suddenly just lock in it’s place in orbit, permanently in earth’s shadow, opposite the sun, other than tectonic and tidal chaos, what happens space-side? I imagine the Earth-Moon lagrange points change as the distribution of gravitational pulls have changed, but do the Sun-Earth one’s become affected too? How would the Moon and Earth behave towards each other?
I know this question requires tons of math and equations to really sort out, but I’m just looking for rough ballpark things that would probably happen, not really hyper specific things. Also let’s say this “locking in place” of the moon were to only happen for maybe 20-30 years before it “unlocks” and resumes it’s normal orbit. Also in this hypothetical lets use sci fi magic to keep the moon at its current distance, not falling towards nor away from Earth. Almost like a big moon-sized space ship kinda just orbiting the sun close to earth like the outer wheel of a turning car
I appreciate any answers, I tried researching myself but unsurprisingly theres not too much info on this out in the open. Thanks!
Hopefully some magic would hold it there, otherwise it would crash into the Earth.
The Lagrange points are not some static points with supernatural properties. They rely on everyone moving on proper orbits. Objects in the E-M Lagrange points are in orbit just like the Moon itself.
If the Moon is frozen in place by magic, then the equilibrium of the L points is disrupted. You need orbital rotation of all bodies involved for the L points to work. If the Moon stops working according to the laws of nature, then the L points are not equilibrium points anymore.
Who knows? It’s magic that keeps the Moon frozen in place, so anything is possible.
No. Magic can just happen. No math required.
Yeah, because the scenario is not physically realistic.