If the moon rotates how come we always see the same side?

Dear LordLive...

because the moon spins on it’s axes at the same speed as it orbits the Earth. (28 days for BOTH.)

The PERVAILING theory is that in the DISTANT past, it’s MOLTON core was subject to tides from the Earth’s gravity. The friction of the core shifting back and forth slowed the spin down until it finally matched the orbit.

And yes the Moon dose “wobble” in it’s orbit AND on it’s axes. The axis wobble is why we can see just a bit more than half of the surface, And the orbital wobble is why we don’t get Solar and lunar eclipses every month.

ESP

PS What Upside down said.

PSS Mercury and the Sun are the same way.

You know I have often thought of the same thing. It would be absolutely amazing to think that the moon just happens to rotate in precisely the same speed going around the world as to always have the same side facing us. But on one of the science channels about the moon, it stated that objects spinning around each other have a direct effect on one another. The smaller of the 2 will have a tendency to spin around the larger one with one side always facing the larger. Don't ask me why, that is just what it stated. It just may be that the moon has an iron core that is enough out of center to make the moon lock into one position through gravitational forces with that of the earth. The program also stated that the earth's rotation was slowed by the moon's gravitational pull on the oceans and that the tidal waves crashing against the shores over eons slowed the earth rotation from a 6 hour day to what it is now. I don't know about the wobble, but the farther the moon is from earth, the more the earth will wobble. And the moon has days and nights like the earth. Only they last a lot longer.

It seems like a lot of people who have answered really don't understand what they are saying.

The Moon is tidally locked with the Earth. It takes 29.5 days to rotate on it's axis, which is the same amount of time it takes to make one orbit around Earth, which is why we only see one side. The dark side DOES face the Sun, during a new moon.

The Moon doesn't really wobble, but we do see more than 50% of the surface over time. The Moon's orbit is not a perfect circle, but is actually an ellipse. That means that when it is closer to the Earth it orbits a little faster; when it is farther out it orbits a little slower.

Every planet in the Solar system rotates on a Axis. It takes roughly a month for the moon to do a 360 degree spin. The moon is like Earth; It has days. If i remember right a day on the moon lasts 29.5 Earth days. The moon rotates therefore it would see the sun on all sides over time. No planet in the solar system does perfect spins therefore it could wobble but being the weight its unlikely as wobbling is Zero-Gravity is next to impossible.

Actually, the moon does rotate on it's axis. It is not just orbiting. we only see one face of the moon because the moon does not rotate the same way on it's axis as the earth. Only one side of the Moon is visible from Earth because the Moon rotates about its spin axis at the same rate that the Moon orbits the Earth, a situation known as synchronous rotation or tidal locking

It rotates on its axis once every 29 days, coinciding with the orbital period (rotating around the earth)

Thus, the same face is always shown to Earth-based viewers.

The hidden side faces the sun especially during a new moon.

Because the moon is so large, especially in relation to the size of the Earth, it is tidally locked. Go read wikipedia for more details.

It rotates in the same length of time it takes to orbit the Earth - we only see the one side because of that orbital synchronization (called tidal acceleration).

There is no "dark side" because as the moon orbits the Earth every part of the moon faces the sun during the month.

It does wobble a bit (called "libration").

Because it takes the same time (29 days) for the moon to orbit the Earth as it does to rotate all the way around. So by the time the moon has orbited halfway around the Earth, it has also rotated halfway around.

Take your hand and put it out by you right ear with your palm facing your right ear. Now make it orbit around your head to the other side, by you left ear, but make sure that your hand is always facing your face. You always see the same side of your hand while you move it because you are turning it. That turning represents the rotation of the moon.

the moon became tidally locked with the earth eons in the past. gravity led to the moons rotation to sluggish and equivalent one orbit of earth, like maximum different moons. besides the shown fact that, the moon does no longer continuously teach us an identical area. The moon wobbles through fact the month progresses through a non-circlular orbit, its tilted on its axis and quite a number of different different perturbations. this is named lunar libration. And the Earth will by no ability decelerate adequate to have an identical area continuously dealing with the moon. The moon is moving extra suitable faraway from earth (very VERY slowly), and could actual pass away the earth and become a planet orbiting our solar earlier the earth slowed its rotation adequate to be tidally locked. no longer something can orbit the earth with a orbital era extra suitable than 7 months through Earths a million.5 million mile Hill radius it quite is Earths gravitational area and not the suns.

The speed the Moon rotates on its axis is equal to the period of its orbit.