China's Jade Rabbit Moon rover sends back first photos

[Xithras]

78. The Earth may never be tidally locked to the moon.

The math has already been done, and the moon will be tidally locked to the Earth in about five billion years with a 47 day rotational cycle. Problem is, the sun will be expanding into a red giant at that point, and the Earth will be blasted by a far more powerful solar wind and may even be within the outer edges of the solar atmosphere. Some projections show that increased drag will slow the moons orbit and, once it reaches the Roche limit, the moon will break apart into a ring where it will remain until the planet is consumed by the sun.

Not that it will matter for people. Life as we know it only has a few hundred million years left on this planet, will be largely gone in 600 million years, and will be reduced to nothing more than microbes in a billion. We won't be around to see any of it.