Ahhh, okay. I remembered the 1.5 inches per year but in the wrong direction-- I think i mixed up decaying orbits / Lagrange points for closer satellites that are impacted by atmospheric friction. I had forgotten that the weird phenomena of rotation and tidal gravitational forces combine to speed up the moon's orbit, functionally the same thing as escaping. And yes, explode was a convenient fill in word for "expand into a red giant, assimilating most of the inner bodies in the solar system, then shed the outer layers in a not-quite-explosion, leaving a white dwarf core", but you're right, that's incomplete