Why does the moon revolve around the earth with the same side always facing the earth, ie one revolution per month, and this from the very beginning?

How did this come about? And why is it so stable? It’s like one side of the moon is heavier and more attracted to the Earth?

Asker: Xavier, 57 years old

Answer

If the moon were perfectly round, it would be an unusual coincidence that it always faces the same side to us. It would make much more sense if she rotates at least a bit.

Read some articles on I have a question about the tides. The tides cause the Earth to have an elongated shape in the direction of the Moon.

If the Earth did not rotate relative to the Moon’s rotation, the tides would “stand still”, and, over time, not only would the sea have the elliptical shape, but also the Earth’s crust, because it is in fact still sufficiently flexible.

The moon is always with the same side to the earth because the moon is not really round. Seen from the side, the moon is oval (almost invisible).

For a non-perfect sphere, the most stable orbit of a satellite around a planet is one where the long axes are aligned. On Earth you see this as tides, on the moon this is “frozen” in a fixed orientation.

Even man-made satellites spontaneously start pointing their long axis towards Earth over time.

Has this always been the case? Probably not. When the moon formed, it most likely had its own rotation. It was still semi-liquid, so there were tides in the moon’s crust. The moon became more and more viscous, causing the lunar tides to cause increasing friction. This gradually slowed the lunar rotation. At some point, the moon became “solid”, in an elliptical shape.

The moon is much smaller than the Earth, so it cooled down and solidified much earlier.

Why does the moon revolve around the earth with the same side always facing the earth, ie one revolution per month, and this from the very beginning?

Answered by

Engineer Bart Dierickx

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