2006-12-23 10:46:42 · 18 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Most of the answers above are at least partly correct, though there is a lot of jumbled prose there.
The moon IS "spinning," or rotating on its axis. Most bodies in space with any mass to speak of do revolve. The moon rotates on its axis once every 29 days 4 hours. By coincidence, it also revolves around the earth exactly once every 29 days 4 hours.
Nobody knows the reason for this coincidence, and it is totally imponderable. No reason to ask, "why?" That would be like asking why men are male and women are female. It is a given.
Because the moon revolves and rotates at the same speed, it always shows the same side to the earth. Because of this, many people who have not learned about these things have the initial impression that the moon does not rotate (or "spin").
Gravity, on the other hand, is a property of massive objects, and is not caused by rotation. The surface gravity of the moon is very close to one sixth (1/6) that of the earth. One sixth, not one fifth.
2006-12-23 13:06:13 · answer #1 · answered by aviophage 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes!!! the Moon does spin. It spins on its axis once for approximately every 28 days. So it always has the same face towards the Earth. Do NOT confuse spinning on its axis with orbital rotation about Earth. The two movements are occurring simultaneously.
The Moon does have gravity. it is not a strong as Earth's gravity. Every object be it an atom to the largest known stars and black holes have gravity. Gravity is dependent on its mass, not the fact that it is spinning. The larger the mass the greater the gravity.
2006-12-24 08:17:03 · answer #2 · answered by lenpol7 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The moon does not need to spin to have gravity.
It already has gravity that is 1/6 that of the Earth's
gravity. The gravity is produced by the mass of the
moon, not by any particular spin motion.
2006-12-23 12:38:32 · answer #3 · answered by zahbudar 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
First, the moon DOES spin, hence its having a light and dark side. The side we see in the sky at night is the side facing us, the side receiving light from the sun which bypasses Earth. Like all spherical bodies, the moon rotates on an axis. Second, the moon DOES have gravity, about 1/6 that of Earth. Since gravity is the attraction of bodies to one another, all spheroids have it.
2006-12-23 11:13:04 · answer #4 · answered by ensign183 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes. Gravity is created by objects with mass. How they move, does not affect their gravitational field. Spinning or not, it has gravity. And it is in fact closer to 1/6 gravity, not 1/5.
The moon is already spinning anyway, if it wasn't we'd see different sides of it, but we see only one due to it's spin taking as long as one orbit of the Earth.
Hope this helps
2006-12-23 10:56:02 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
The moon IS spinning and it does have gravity, but not because of that spin. Gravity results from the presence of mass, and whether that mass is spinning or not has nothing to do with it.
2006-12-23 11:00:22 · answer #6 · answered by Chug-a-Lug 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As noted above, it IS spinning (1 rev/29 days) and the gravity of the moon's mass is REDUCED by a small factor at the equator because of spinning.
2006-12-23 15:20:39 · answer #7 · answered by Steve 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The moon has gravity due to its Mass, it does not depend on Spin
2006-12-23 10:56:11 · answer #8 · answered by Les C 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Gravity has nothing to do with spinning, just mass. So the moon does have gravity already because it has mass. It just has less gravity than the earth because it has less mass than the earth.
2006-12-23 10:49:45 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
It does spin, think about it. The Earth spins, the part of the moon we see is always the same. Think about what`s going on.
2006-12-23 11:00:05 · answer #10 · answered by Spanner 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋