The Moon is slowly leaving us. Every year, it drifts about an inch and a half farther away, a detail scientists confirm by bouncing lasers off mirrors Apollo astronauts left behind. It’s not something you’ll notice, or even be alive for, but it’s happening all the same.

On average, the Moon sits 239,000 miles from Earth. Its orbit isn’t a perfect circle, so the distance shifts by about 12,000 miles every month. That wobble is why some full moons look bigger and brighter and get hyped as “supermoons.” But the long-term story is stranger: tides are pushing the Moon outward, and Earth is paying the price with ever-so-slightly longer days.

The Moon pulls harder on the side of Earth that faces it, which makes the oceans bulge toward its gravity. Since Earth spins faster than the Moon circles

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