How did the moon's orbit develop to keep half of it out of sight?

Question

If eons ago the moon compressed out of dust and was captured by the earth's orbit after some explosion somewhere, how did something so chaotic develop into such a precise configuration?

If you were in charge of calculating how to make a moon hit the orbit of a planet with exactly the right spin on it so that it always has the same side facing the planet, the parameters would be very specific. How can nature have done that?

With other operations that are so specific, like mutations in evolution, there are billions of iterations that bring precise configurations, but with the moon there was only one shot.

Well, I can't tell who's right here so I'm opening it to a vote. It doesn't make any sense that the moon would ring like a bell, or that the moon is a chunk of the earth, or that the waves of the ocean are what pull one side of the earth always towards us. But I am not an expert, though, so I could use more convincing.

Answer 1

actually this is not specific at all: ALL satellites end up in that configuration.

it goes this way:
- your satellite rotates on itself, and revolves around the main body
- tidal forces from the main body pull on the closer side of the satellite, a bit stronger than on the far side. This would pull the satellite in the shape of a football (American) IF it were not rotating. But it is. So it constantly changes shape (in small amounts). This creates huge amounts of internal friction, at the cost of some rotational energy
- over (a very long) time, the satellite's rotational speed slows down until the point where its speed of rotation is equal to its speed of revolution. This is the case for our Moon
- in the case of the Earth it takes longer because the Earth is quite far from the sun, and very small relative to it, so the tidal forces from the Sun are small. In Earth diameters, the Earth is about 11'700 Earth diameters away from the Sun. And it is also nearly 110 times smaller than the sun.
- compare this with the Moon. It is only 109 Moon diameters away from the Earth. And it is just 3.7x smaller than the Earth.

But even though those effects are smaller for the Sun-Earth couple, eventually the Earth will also end up with its period of rotation equal to its period of revolution.

Answer 2

Actually, not all moons orbit their planets so that one side is always facing the planet. Our Moon is becoming tidally locked with the Earth, which is why one side is always facing us and one side is facing away. The Earth is slowly slowing in it's daily orbit because of the Moon's gravitational influence. Eventually, only one side of the Earth will face the Moon as well, although that's a long ways off.

The Moon was not 'compressed out of dust'. The leading theory for the formation of the Moon is that a comet/asteroid came along early in the formation of the Earth and knocked off a big chunk that then got trapped in the Earth's orbit. Other theories include capture of a rouge asteroid, but Moon rocks have shown to be made out of the same stuff as the Earth (for the most part), so the first theory seems better supported.

Answer 3

The Moon is in sync with its rotation because it is held there like a satellite that is held in the same conditions by gravity gradient. In ATS 5 there was a small weight on the end of a telescoping pole . It work well except the satellite was in a lower orbit and was hitting minute atmosphere .
It is possible the moon was hot and most of the heavy material is on one side. On one mission we crashed the lim back on the moon and the moon rang like a bell for 30 min.

Answer 4

Isn't is incredibly amazing? I don't think there is an answer... it just happened to configure that way.

I would venture to say however that at some point the moon will begin to show us it's other side. It is currently gaining altitude at a rate of aproximately 1.5 inches per year. So as the Earth's gravitational pull loses it's grip, the moon will begin to react to other gravitational fields acting upon it. I'm sure this will not be observable in our lifetime... or our great-grandchildren's lifetime's for that matter. More likely in many thousands of years from now.

Answer 5

This technique resists explanation different than for the only that the great Albert Einstein gave us, that there is not something to his theories, if it weren't for curved area. In different words, count/mass sucks area into its energies, even on the tiniest scale, and the only thank you to understand or confront actuality is by using imagining area is curved. on the brink of the earth like at floor the place we are residing, the curve of area is extra, permit's say a similar curve by way of fact the floor. So at as quickly as, issues on the floor will "fall" lower back to the floor, or be sucked in to the sector, the sector is the sector of mass or gravitiy and is comparable to the curve. Then now think of of the moon, 1 / 4 of a million miles remote from earth the place the curve is like, spread out or loose. So the moon would not get sucked as lots and strikes in orbit, it is following the curve and strikes quickly so it would not fall or get sucked. The moon is on the appropriate distance to orbit effectively and not fly off or get sucked in. human beings on the floor are made up of count/mass and "sense" the gravity. they don't fly into area by way of fact they are attracted or sucked in by using the earth's area curve

Answer 6

those darn aliens are always screwing with us.