Tidal Locking | Why Do We Only See One Side of the Moon?
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In 1959, the Soviet spacecraft Luna 3 beamed back images of something Earthlings had neverbefore seen: the far side of the moon.We always see the same old side of the moon because the moon rotates exactly once on itsaxis each time it orbits Earth. If it weren’t spinning at all, we’d get at least one 360degree view of its surface with each lap. If it were spinning twice as fast, we’dalso see the moon’s entire surface more than once per orbit. But instead, our moon’smotions – like the spin and orbit of most other moons in our solar system – are, remarkably,in perfect sync.This wasn’t always the case: our best guess is that our own moon formed due to a massiveasteroid impact, and its initial spin and dizzying 10-hour orbit were almost certainlynot in sync wit...
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In 1959, the Soviet spacecraft Luna 3 beamed back images of something Earthlings had neverbefore seen: the far side of the moon.We always see the same old side of the moon because the moon rotates exactly once on itsaxis each time it orbits Earth. If it weren’t spinning at all, we’d get at least one 360degree view of its surface with each lap. If it were spinning twice as fast, we’dalso see the moon’s entire surface more than once per orbit. But instead, our moon’smotions – like the spin and orbit of most other moons in our solar system – are, remarkably,in perfect sync.This wasn’t always the case: our best guess is that our own moon formed due to a massiveasteroid impact, and its initial spin and dizzying 10-hour orbit were almost certainlynot in sync wit...
