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Is it true, Our Moon is Tidally Locked to our Earth because it half side had more Mass than it opposite side?

the Dark Side of our moon had more craters and looks fragile, so it shoud contains less mass than the surface that facing our Earth, which is more solid and had more mass.

if we create a ball that made by half iron and half plastic, and fall it down from the sky to Earth, does the iron side would be a downside and plastic side would be an upside?

if yes, does it means explanation about Tidally Locked that we knows are wrong?

Thanks in advance!

5 Answers

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  • ?
    Lv 7
    10 months ago

    That has nothing to do with it.  ALL bodies with satellites pull on each other so both of them slow down by gravitational tidal drag.  That is why it is called tidal locking - the creation of tides eventually slows them to the point where the same side of each always faces the other.  The Moon has already done this, because it's smaller, while Earth hasn't yet but eventually it will.  There is evidence that in the age of the dinosaurs, an Earth year had 400 days.

    There is no such thing as the Moon having a dark side.  All sides get equal light as it orbits.  And don't tell me it's a phrase people use, I know it is and they're still wrong.

  • Anonymous
    10 months ago

    No, the moon is tidally locked with the Earth for the same reason many other moons are tidally locked to their parent planets.

    https://wiki.kidzsearch.com/wiki/Tidal_locking

  • 10 months ago

    No the reason the Moon is tidally locked because Earth is 81 times more massive than the Moon and it's relative close by. It's has nothing to do with the surface conditions on the moon itself. Furthermore there is no 'dark side' of the moon. We think of it as 'the dark side' because we never see it, but if it is New moon, then we still watch the moon as it is, only we watch the night side of the moon at that time. Your so called "dark side" is then fully illuminated by the sun.

  • 10 months ago

    >>Is it true, Our Moon is Tidally Locked to our Earth because

    >>it half side had more Mass than it opposite side?

    Well, it helped... It's thought that the moon formed from a the debris that came from a giant impact on the early Earth. That debris collected, and - for a time - we had *two* moons; but, the smaller moon impacted the larger one, becoming the singular moon we have today.  That smaller moon had slightly less density than the larger one, and it appears to have impacted on what is today lunar far side. The moon likely rotated, but with the uneven mass distribution, tidal braking occurred - and, we see just one side of the moon today. >>the Dark Side of our moon had more craters and looks fragile, so 

    >>it shoud contains less mass than the surface that facing our Earth,

    >>which is more solid and had more mass. 

    It's definitely more beaten up; however, part of why the side of the moon facing Earth looks relatively "smooth" is due to the late-heavy bombardment; impacts on the moon liquefied the surface, and molten material filled in the impact areas, creating the "seas" we see today - the darkened marea that make the Man in the Moon. 

    >>if we create a ball that made by half iron and half plastic, and fall it down 

    >>from the sky to Earth, does the iron side would be a downside and plastic side 

    >>would be an upside? 

    Yes, probably - but you'd need to consider the aerodynamics in that case as well. If you slowly spun the half-iron, half-plastic ball as you dropped it, air would act with equal force on both sides of the ball - but the plastic side, with less mass, would react *more* to that force than the iron side, due to the equation F = ma... with equal force, but lower mass, the acceleration (a) is larger. 

    Now - do the same experiment on the Moon.  Drop the same ball, with the same roll, and the *only* force acting on it is the moon's gravity.  In the short time it takes to fall from, say, 10 miles to the lunar surface, the tidal effects it experiences aren't great enough to stop the roll; and 'tidal braking' may not be apparent in such a small object that doesn't distort like a planet would. 

    >>if yes, does it means explanation about Tidally Locked that we >>knows are wrong?No; we have a pretty good handle on tidal locking; if the planet or moon in orbit about an object is somewhat flexible, locking can occur quicker, as can an object where the center of mass is *not* at the center of the object (think of a spinning a dumbbell in orbit about the moon - eventually, the uneven pull will slow the spinning dumbbell such that one weight is pointed toward the moon, the other will be pointed away...)>>Thanks in advance!

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  • ?
    Lv 7
    10 months ago

    The Moon has no dark side. The Farside of the Moon gets just as much sunlight has the Nearside. The Farside has much thicker crust than the Nearside. It may have more mass, but that is not the only reason the Moon is tidally locked. The object with the smaller mass always becomes totally locked first because of conservation of angular momentum. Earth will eventually become totally locked with the Moon if the Sun doesn't expand during the red giant phase and consume both the Earth and Moon first.

    No, it is not true according to this article;   https://www.forbes.com/sites/jillianscudder/2016/1...

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