Saturday, July 18, 2020

We always see the same side of moon no matter wherever we are standing on earth!!!

Tidal Locking | Why Do We Only See One Side of the Moon? - YouTube
The moon keeps the same face pointing towards the Earth because its rate of spin is tidally locked so that it is synchronized with its rate of revolution (the time needed to complete one orbit). In other words, the moon rotates exactly once every time it circles the Earth.
"The same forces that create tides in the Earth's oceans (from the gravitational pull of the moon and, to a lesser extent, the sun) also act on the solid body of the moon. The Earth's gravitational force on the moon distorts the moon into a slightly prolate, or football, shape; in addition the moon's intrinsic form is somewhat egg-shaped. If the tip of the football/egg does not point toward the Earth, then gravitational forces exert a torque that makes the tip point back toward the Earth (in reality, the moon oscillates a small amount around perfect alignment, a motion called the lunar libration)."

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