🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1jp9fbINN9nj@gap.caltech.edu> leroy@cluster.gps.caltech.edu (Stephen Leroy) writes:
>In article <1993Jan21.230333.46626@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> christos@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu writes:

>>1. Is the moon rotating around the earth in a single plane sothat every 29 days
>>it comes in between the sun and the earth?

>Since the moon is not in the Earth's orbital plane, we don't get eclipses
>every 29 days.

<much deleted above.>

This brings up a point that is mentioned in Wagner's "Introduction to
the Solar System" (p. 208) that has been nagging me. He states 

	"Unlike most planetary satellites, the Moon does not orbit in
its planet's equatorial plane. Instead, it orbits nearly in the
ecliptic plane, with an orbital inclination of 5.15 deg. Various
pertubations cause this value to vary between 4.95 and 5.33 deg. The
fact that the Moon does not orbit in the Earth's equatorial plane may
be a clue to its origin, indicating that it is a captured object."

	I have not seen any such statement elsewhere, though it is the
kind of thing that might be buried in Hartmann and I missed. My
questions are:

1. Is the geometry described true?

2. Has anyone speculated on the relation to the origin of the
Moon?

3. Are there other satellites orbits similarly oriented?


Joseph Cain		cain@geomag.gly.fsu.edu   
cain@fsu.bitnet		scri::cain
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