Aki Posted November 16, 2004 Report Posted November 16, 2004 People say that we only see one side of the moon, how does that work anyways? I thought the moon rotates on its axis, just like the earth does.
Tormod Posted November 16, 2004 Report Posted November 16, 2004 Yes, it does rotate. The rotation of the moon is "tidal locked", which means that it rotates around its axis once for every orbit around the Earth. That's why we only see one side of it from here.
Freethinker Posted November 16, 2004 Report Posted November 16, 2004 Originally posted by: TormodYes, it does rotate. The rotation of the moon is "tidal locked",It might help to add that this means that just as the mass of the moon causes the tides here on Earth, the mass of Earth causes a bulge in the Moon which is attracked to the Earth, thus locking that side (the bulge being more mass) towards Earth.
Tormod Posted November 16, 2004 Report Posted November 16, 2004 Here is a good article from WikiPedia on tidal locking:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_locking
Aki Posted November 20, 2004 Author Report Posted November 20, 2004 Thanks Tormod, I read it, and I don't understand this:In addition, Mercury is tidally locked with the Sun in a 3:2 resonance.what does "3:2 resonance" mean?
Tormod Posted November 20, 2004 Report Posted November 20, 2004 Mercury's 3:2 resonance means that for every 2 orbits around the sun, the planet rotates 3 times around it's own axis.
Aki Posted November 22, 2004 Author Report Posted November 22, 2004 ah okay.So would the Moon's resonance be 1:1?
maddog Posted January 8, 2005 Report Posted January 8, 2005 Aki, .. as is Io tidally locked around Jupiter in a 1:1 resonance. Maddog
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