Why does the Moon orbit the Earth and not the Sun?

Answer 1

The moon is much closer to the Earth than it is to the sun, and has been captured by the Earth's gravitational field. But note that since the Earth orbits the sun, it is taking the moon with it, so the moon also orbits the sun, as well as the Earth.

Answer 2

The moon does orbit the sun, as part of the Earth-Moon planetary system.

But to answer your question in the spirit in which it was asked, the moon travels around the Earth for the same reason other satellites orbit their own planets: because at the distance between the Earth and the moon, our gravity is much stronger than the sun's.

That's because gravity, like light, follows an inverse square ratio: halving the distance quadruples the power. The Earth is around 1/333,000 the mass of the sun, but is only about 1/400 the distance away from the moon.

Squaring 1/400 gives us 1/160,000, or a little more than double the gravitational pull at those distances. (Remember that with fractions, the smaller you make the denominator, the largerthe resulting number.)

Answer 3

well the moon got grabed by earth and it is now in the earths gavitationa l pull and well the sun still has a effect on it

Answer 4

Earth's gravitational pull keeps the moon pulling toward Earth while the moon's inertia and momentum keep it moving forward. The result is an elliptical orbit (Earths gravity is stronger)