Why can we never see the other side of the moon?

Answer 1

You can't see the other side of the moon because the rotation of Moon on its axis and revolution around the Earth take exactly the same time. Thus, we always get to see the same side of the Moon.

Additionally, as the moon orbits the earth, we see different portions of it lit up, and the moon appears to change shape. These changing shapes are the phases of the moon which take place over only the half of the moon that faces the earth, as we only ever really see the side of the moon that faces the earth, and we never see the far side or dark side of the moon. Over the course of a month which is 29.5 days, the moon changes from new (which means you can't see it at all) to1st quarter (which means you see half of the part of the moon that faces us) to full (which means you see all of that half that faces us) to last quarter (which means you see the other half of the part that faces us) and then back to new again. In other words, when the moon is new, it means that the sun is shining on the dark side that we never see. When the moon is full, the sun is shining fully on the side that we always see. When the moon is at 1st quarter, the sun is shining on only half of the part of the moon we can see.

However, the dark side is actually not dark. It is the side nearest the sun. In 1959, Russia's spacecraft Luna 3 left the Earth and headed to the Moon. It returned the first picture of the far side. Then in 1968 on Christmas eve, three men, Borman, Lovell, and Anders saw the far side of the moon with their own eyes as their Apollo 8 spacecraft circumnavigated the Moon.

Answer 2

We always see the same side of the moon. So, it would seem that the moon does not rotate (spin on its axis), right? A surprising number of people are very insistent that the moon does not rotate.

But the moon definitely rotates. It just doesn't look like it, from where we stand because it's speed of rotation closely matches the rotation of the moon around the earth.

The moon rotates at a constant rate. But, it's distance from earth, and speed in its orbit, varies quite a bit. This means that we can see a little ways around the edge of the moon. So, over a period of time, we can see slightly more than 50% of the moon, from earth.

Answer 3

Here we should take into account the orbit of the moon around the earth and its own rotation about its axis.

The period of orbit is same as that of rotation and this causes the same hemisphere to always face the earth.

For example, when a body makes half its orbit (given that it does not rotate on its axis), we should see the other side of the body. (Like a person passing by: at first we see his/her face, then if we follow his/her motion, we see his/her back.)

The moon however rotates together such that as the person (Moon) moves by he/she also turns gradually towards us so that he/she can continue to see our eyes. In the end we end up seeing only one side - the face.

Same for the moon.

Answer 4

We always see the same face of the moon because the period of the moon's rotation as it circles the Earth is exactly the same as its revolution about the Earth. That is to say it takes the moon the same amount of time to spin once on its axis as it takes for it to revolve once around the Earth---28 days and some change.

Think of the Earth as a Sun, and the moon as a planet orbiting that Sun. The moon's day (the time it takes for it to spin once on its axis) and its year (the time it takes to orbit its Sun) are exactly the same.

Answer 5

Because of synchronicity. The moon turns once on its axis once every month, whereas the earth accomplishes this once every 24 hours. As the moon orbits around the earth, it presents the same face towards the earth as it goes around, meaning that when the moon has completed one orbit in a month, it has also turned once on its axis. If you take a beach ball and a basketball with the "Wilson" logo on it, and you move the basketball around the beach ball in a circle, you can see that if you keep the logo pointed at the beach ball, the basket ball will have turned completely around once on its axis as it makes its full circle around the beach ball.

Answer 6

While the moon orbits the Earth, it is also rotating on it's axis. The rotation is such the the same side is always facing the Earth.

Answer 7

The moon is tidally locked with the earth. One side always faces the earth. This is a common phenomenon amongst many natural satellites in the solar system.

Answer 8

Because of the intense gravity between the Earth and moon, the moon revolves about its axis only once a (Lunar) month.

Answer 9

Because the moon makes one spin by the time ti completes one circle around the earth.it always shos the same face to all the spots on the face of the earth.

Answer 10

Because its rotation is "captured" by the Earth.
It means that the Moon rotates around its axis (lunar day) in exactly the same time (~28 days) as one orbit around the Earth.
That's why we always see the same half of its surface.