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Is the moon in a static orbit?

I went through the same school system as everybody else, been told that the moon makes exactly 1 rotation per revolution, which is why we always see the same side of the moon.

But is it exact? I find it hard to believe that this is a perfect rotation, with so many things moving around the solar system, it is conceivable that the Earth and moon are the only two bodies locked with perfect orbits.

Will the moon still appear exactly the same to us in 100 years? 1,000 years? 10,000 years, 100,000 years? 1 Million?

Update:

Those who are answering are covering distance, my question is about the rotation, given ever increasing spans of time, will we on earth ever see the far side of the moon?

5 Answers

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  • David
    Lv 6
    8 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    Because the moon's orbit is an ellipse, there is a slight "wobble" in the face it shows toward the earth, so we can see something like 52% of the total surface.

    Because of the drag of the earth's tides, some of the Earth's angular (or rotational) momentum is gradually being transferred to the Moon's orbital momentum, and this causes the Moon to slowly recede from Earth at the rate of approximately 38 millimetres per year. In keeping with the conservation of angular momentum, the Earth's rotation is gradually slowing, and the Earth's day thus lengthens by about 23 microseconds every year (excluding glacial rebound)

  • 8 years ago

    it's not in an exact static orbit, and over very long times it may get slightly closer or further away from us (it's only one of these, but i can't remember which one).

    however, the thing with us always seeing only one side of the moon is called being tidally locked. it's not a coincidence, it's an effect that happened based on how the earth and moon system works. the earth and moon are NOT the only two bodies that have this property, it can happen all over the place (but doesn't always happen). the moon wasn't tidally locked with us before, but slowly over time it became tidally locked.

  • Anonymous
    8 years ago

    The moon's orbit is receding from the Earth two inches every year. In 1 million years, the moon will be 400 miles away than it is now.

  • 5 years ago

    about the flag, it grow to be starched or something. I remeber observing them unroll as if it grow to be a crumpled up paper bag. It did not wave a lot and in simple terms wobble slightly when they set it up in simple terms because your technology instructor thinks it may well be inspite of, doesn't make it so. one in all my technology instructors grow to be a actual looser too. He once tried to describe the seasons were a effect of the earth's poles tilting again and forth each and every 3 hundred and sixty 5 days. In his haste, he had puzzled 'procession' - a procedure that takes thousands of years - with the seasons. when I requested him why the North movie star is continually immediately up above the north pole, he had no rationalization. because he in no way incredibly understood what he grow to be employed to teach. this is complicated to bypass to the moon proper now interior a similar way each and every area flight is a really intense priced and risky agency. we've had 2 commute failures to instruct that. you could't take with none interest the acute volume of probability whenever you've that a lot rocket gasoline in a unmarried position. in spite of the undeniable fact that, the technologies to get the the moon is okay understood. The pcs on the apollo missions were not as powerful because the clinical calculator you take advantage of in college to do your math. The early area commute used pcs seriously a lot less powerful that the conventional personal computer computer is now. What you received't comprehend is that the technologies to effectively pretend something you will see that on television has purely ensue contained in the finest 10-15 years. it may were thoroughly not plausible to pretend the moon touchdown in 1969 and characteristic it look so actual that no plausible tell. Now adays, you could't believe each and every thing you spot. Its in simple terms too elementary to create particular outcomes. yet in 1969, there have been no stay digital pictures, no thanks to do the flaws in actual time they could have had to do to create a resounding phantasm. It had to be actual.

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  • 8 years ago

    I would say ever growing dynamic orbit. even the earth is moving away from the sun every so often

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