Imagine that the Moon and the Earth are connected with an imaginary cable. The cable is bolted down on the Moon, but it’s connected to a ring around the Earth. So, the Earth can rotate at its own speed of turning once every 24 hours, and the Moon can go around it once every 27 days. But the Moon always shows the same face towards the Earth. Astronomers call this situation tidal locking. And it wasn’t always the case. In the ancient past, the rotation of the Moon was at a different rate than its orbit around the Earth. But the Earth’s gravity kept tugging onto it, pulling different parts of the Moon at different rates. This pull slowed down the rotation of the Moon until its rotation matched its orbital period. Read more: universetoday/19965/rotation-of-the-moon/#ixzz2fwzZsd5Buniversetoday/19965/rotation-of-the-moon/
Posted on: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 23:34:04 +0000
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