The Moon spins around the Earth. Why do we never see the dark side of the Moon?

Answer 1

If you mean the 'far' side of the Moon, there is a good reason. And it isn't a coincidence. The Moon is not a perfect sphere, but is slightly lopsided. Because of this, and because it is so close to the Earth, one side of it is attracted more toward the Earth than the other. The Moon has been in orbit around the Earth for so long, this imbalance has synchronized the Moons rotation and locked the heavier face forever towards the Earth.

Several moons around other planets are also locked in this manner.

If you really meant the dark side, we see the dark side of the Moon quite often. The portion of the Moon that is dark comes into view for 2 weeks out of each month. That is what the 'new' moon is. When the dark side is facing Earth.

Answer 2

We see the dark side, or side that is not being lit up by the Sun, every month when the Moon is in it New Moon phase and parts of the unlit side during other phases. We never see the far side of the Moon because the rate of the Moon spinning on its axis matches the rate it orbits the Earth in such a way to keep the same side facing us all the time. The only humans to have ever seen the far side with their own eyes [and not in photographs] are the Apollo astronauts.

Answer 3

The Moon takes the same time to rotate on its axis as it does to revolve in its orbit around the Earth. Hence it always keeps the same side (called the near side) facing towards the Earth. This is called tidal locking, the result of billions of years of the Moon revolving around the Earth. The side away from the Earth, which we never see except when we get little peeks around the edge, is called the far side.

There is no such thing as a dark side. Every location on the Moon receives 14 days of sunlight out of the 28 days it takes to travel around the Earth. I suppose the side away from the Sun is technically the dark side, but it is constantly moving as the Moon rotates. In fact, it is never really dark, except at Full Moon, because it receives quite a bit of sunlight reflected off the Earth. This is most noticeable in the few days before and after New Moon, when you can see the "dark side" faintly lit by earthlight.

Answer 4

I think it has to do with graviy. The Earth's gravity is considerably stronger than the Moon's The Earth's gravity is so strong that the the Moon only rotates every 28 or 29 days. Try to think of it as a big magnet near a quarter your trying to spin on the table. The closer the magnet and quarter are, the less turns the quarter can make. The Moon and Earth are synchronized like a clocks gears. The whole solar system is synchronized like a clock

Answer 5

We see the same side of the moon because the moon inner core is tilted towards earth, so as it spins the core & gravity keeps the same side facing earth. Also, the moon rotates and spins (they are different) at the same rate that the earth does so we never see the far side (far side is the correct term) of the moon.

Answer 6

We see it. It is dark. If you look long enough, it might appear as a silhouette, a dark area without stars.

By the way,
The Moon revolves around the Earth rather than spins around the Earth.
Whether the Moon spins has got nothing to do with its dark side.

After reading the other answers.. I think I'm on the wrong track. Anyway, the other [standard] answers seem to assume that we live on a single place on earth..

Answer 7

The moon rotates on its axis once for every trip around Earth. Therefore, we only get to see one side of the illuminated moon. The moon exhibits something called "libration" (which is kind of like a slight wobble), which allows us to see slightly more or less around each limb of the moon, but not by all that much.

Be thankful for this situation though. Otherwise, Pink Floyd might've never recorded, "The Dark Side of the Moon"!

:)

Answer 8

What a confusing load of opinion.
We actually see about 5/8 ths of the moons surface.
Many people here almost got it right. It has nothing to do with new moon, that just means the Moon is in Earths shadow.
The Moons orbital period is not quite the same as its rotation. The orbital period is 28 days but the rotation is 27.3 days so we get to see a bit more than half of the moon's surface.

Answer 9

We do! Look at a "New Moon".
What we don't see is the "far side" of the moon.

This is because the rotation of the moon coinsides with it's orbit of Earth, so at all times the same face is presented to Earth.

The dark side of the moon is dependant on the moon in relation to the sun, and is on a 28 day cycle.

Answer 10

Because it's dark. When you see a crescent moon, the rest of the circle has no stars. Actually, when the sky is dark enough and the moon is a crescent, you sort of can see the dark side of the moon because it's illuminated by light reflected from the earth.

There is no permanent dark side of the moon. There's a permanent far side of the moon because the tidal forces keep it with the same side always toward earth.