Why does only one side of the moon away facs the earth?

Answer 1

Actually, the moon is locked in its orbit so it always faces the Earth. The Moon is NOT perfectly round...technically its shaped like an egg due to the effects of gravity from the earth and possibly too when the moon was formed bilions of years agao after a huge meteor crashed into the earth and some of the Earth's molten core spewed out into space. Because the Earth is more massive than the Moon, it pulls on the Moon, "stretching" it closer to the Earth, throwing the shape and axis off, causing the moon unable to rotate on its own axis. This same effect is seen by the moons of other massive planets like Jupiter and Saturn. The same is effect is also seen with Mercury due to its close proximity the Sun and its massive gravitational effects.

Answer 2

As the moon circles around the earth, the moon itself is spinning like Earth does each day. The moons rotation just happens to rotate at a rate where as it circles our Earth only one side of the moon is shown. If the moon rotated more rapidly or never rotated at all then we would see multiple sides. In this case, 1 full rotation of the moon just happens to be moving at a rate that keeps one side always facing the earth. It's been a long time since I took a science class so maybe you want mroe specific answers. hehe.

I hope this helps. Correct me if I am incorrect anyone but this is what I remember from science and also from observation.

Answer 3

We see the same face of the Moon all the time due to a phenomenon called tidal locking. Back when the Moon was rotating faster, the Earth's gravity created tides in the Moon's solid crust. The friction of these tides caused the Moon's rotation to slow, until it was in sync with its orbit around Earth and the tidal bulge became fixed. The Moon is doing the same thing to the Earth, but at a much slower rate.

Answer 4

This has been pretty well explained as tidal locking. I thought that it might be interesting to add that most natural satellites are tidally locked with their planet that they orbit. Indeed, Pluto and Charon are tidally locked with each other.

This phenomenon is actually gradually causing the earth's rotation to slow down. There have been indication that millenia ago, there were over 400 days in a year. It has been estimated that if the moon didn't exist, the length of a day would be about eight hours.

Answer 5

The rotation of the moon just happens to be in the same sync as its orbit around the earth, so we only see one side. From the looks of the moon, though, it's speculated that the moon may have orbited faster or rotated faster, etc because there are crater marks on the earth side also, just not as many.

Answer 6

It's supposed to be tidal locking caused by the attraction between the moon and our tides, but methinks that's not really it. Electromagnetic locking is the true cause. We are in a similar lock with Venus, so that when we pass our closest to each other we always show the same face. Gravity alone cannot explain this, AND Venus' nearly perfectly circular orbit.

Astronomers these days aren't worth a crap.

Answer 7

It isn't just coincidence that the moon's rotation about its own axis exactly matches its orbital period so we always see the same face. Because, like every other large object, the moon isn't exactly symmetrical, but very slightly pear-shaped, the Earth pulls the fat part more than the tapered part, and locks the spin period in synchrony with the orbital period.

Answer 8

That's because the moon rotates once the same time it orbit us once. Try holding a book, and revolving it around you (make sure you rotate so that you can actually see the book!). Make sure that you always see the same side, after the book revolves once, voila, it also rotated.

Answer 9

the moon rotates along itself and also around the earth.so,only one side permanently faces the earth.this synchronisation is the reason .we can see the other side of the moon if moon stops rotating around the earth.
the other side of the moon can be seen only by astronauts or by satellites.

Answer 10

Zee Prime's answer of moon's rotatational axis correct.
Ramachandran V.