Is the Moon REALLY leaving us?

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"**Is the Moon REALLY leaving us?**" is the 22nd episode by air date and 9th episode chronologically of SolarBalls.

## Synopsis

The Earth starts to brag about his Moon being WAY better than everyone else's. However, he soon realizes that the Moon MAY not stay with him forever.

## Characters

* Mercury
* Venus
* Earth
* Mars
* Moon
* Phobos
* Deimos
* Jupiter
* Astrodude
* Saturn (sponsor section)
* Narrator (sponsor section)
* Sun (background character)

## Plot

The episode starts with Venus and Mars winning four times in space poker while Earth hasn’t won any rounds. Bitter about losing, Earth starts bragging about being the only one with a moon while disregarding Mars' moons, believing they're too small and calling them "pebbles" instead. Hearing this, Phobos and Deimos immediately berate Earth and even threaten to crash into him to make Earthlings "dinosaurs 2.0", which accidentally proves Earth's point because the dinosaurs died to an asteroid. When Mercury joins in, Earth also teases him, describing him as "Venus' Lost Moon", quickly making the both of them defensive. Mars now believes that Earth is becoming too aggressive and attempts calling him out for it, comparing him to Jupiter, who, despite having more moons, does not brag about it. Sadly, Earth dismisses Mars and leaves, feeling satisfied.

The rest of the terrestrial planets complain about Earth's behavior, when suddenly, Venus comes up with an idea. He first pretends to admit defeat, then convinces him to ask Astrodude about the mirrors that are on the Moon. Now intrigued, Earth immediately heads off to find him. In fact, they are tools used to measure the distance between the Earth and the Moon. Through the conversation, Earth also learns a shocking fact: The Moon is drifting away from him.

Seeing how Earth is now humbled down, the other planets praise Venus for his efforts. Meanwhile, Earth blames Moon for drifting away, claiming that he was intentionally trying to escape, despite Moon repeatedly declaring that this wasn't the case. Before their argument exacerbate though, Jupiter jumps in and offers to explain the reason that the Moon is drifting away. In short, the Earth is pulled by the Moon's gravity, and vice versa, as everything pulls on everything else. However, the side of the Earth that is closer to the Moon (i.e. being pulled by the Moon) is constantly changing. Coupled with the fact that the Earth isn't a perfect sphere, the Moon is pulled towards a weird spot of the Earth's surface, instead of its center, which accelerates the Moon into higher orbit. Now, a sorrowful Earth assumes that it was his fault. Nonetheless, the Moon reassures that it wasn't the case and encourages them to enjoy their time together.

At the end, Earth does not change his mind and still blames his Moon for slowly abandoning him, proving Jupiter's efforts futile.

## Trivia

* Jupiter's moons make a brief cameo at the 1:17 mark, making it technically their first appearance in the series. However they are shown too small to be reliably identified.
* This is the first 8-minute SolarBalls episode.
	+ As a result, it is also the first video to have a sponsor.