Re: 1 Good Question
The Moon is "Tidally locked" to the Earth which means it rotates (on its axis) at the same rate that it orbits the Earth.
Quote:
|
The Moon was almost certainly not tidally locked when it first formed - at that time, it would have rotated at a faster speed, which meant that had any observer been on the early Earth, they could have seen all sides of the moon as it spun. However, the gravitational pull from the Earth - which like the tides due to the Moon, pulls on the side of the Moon closest to the earth more than the far side, resisted this faster rotation. This resistance due to the gravitational pull of the Earth gradually slowed down the faster spin of the Moon until the Moon was no longer rotating faster than it was orbiting. Once the Moon’s rotation had slowed so much that a single face was always facing the surface of the Earth, it had officially been tidally locked, and has stayed in this configuration ever since.
|