If the earth stopped spinning what would happen to the moon A question was posed at work today, "if the earth stopped spinning what would happen to the moon"? Ignoring any effects on the Earth, what actually happens to the Moon? Does it continue to orbit the now non-rotating Earth, or does it fly off into space like a massive asteroid, or more likely some other thing that I can't conceive of? 

Note, the Earth stops spinning, not orbiting the sun. 

For additional curiosity, what would be the differences if this were an extremely gradual slowing vs an almost instantaneous stoppage?
Earth's current rotation is faster (~1 day) than the Moon's orbital period around Earth (~28 days). This leads to tidal acceleration -- the tidal bulges raised by the Moon rotate ahead, pulling on (and being pulled by) the Moon. Over a long period, this converts Earth's rotational momentum into Lunar orbital momentum. The Earth's rotation slows, and the Moon's orbit expands. Eventually, if nothing else interfered, Earth and Moon would become tidally locked, with the length of a day and the length of a month equal.

If Earth weren't rotating, this effect would happen in reverse. Tidal acceleration (deceleration?) would transform Lunar orbital momentum into Earth rotational momentum. The Earth would slowly start to rotate again, and the Moon's orbit would contract, again until the two were tidally locked.

I'm not in a position to run the numbers, but it should be possible to estimate the final configuration -- how close the Moon would be, and how long the day/month would be.