Why Can We Only See One Side Of The Moon
Olivia Luz
As far as the humans are considered living on earth we can only see the one side of the moon either left or right side of the moon that we see each and every day from our motherland earth.
The reason why only one side of the moon is visible from earth because the moon s gravity is tidaly locked by the earth s gravity. So why can we only see one side of the moon from earth. We only ever see one side of the moon because as it orbits around earth it also rotates on its own axis at the same speed. As a result the same lunar hemisphere always faces earth.
Tidal locking is the reason why do we see only one side of the moon the simple answer is that we only see one side of the moon because the moon rotates around the earth at the exact same angular speed in fact it s not exactly true we ll talk about it later too as it rotates around its own axis so that the same side of the moon is constantly facing the surface of the earth. There are two main reasons for this. The side of the moon facing us during a new moon is the same as any other moon phase such as a full moon when we can see the entire face. For starters the moon is not stuck in place with one side facing us.
The moon is directly illuminated by the sun and the cyclically. Though sometimes we also see a glimpse of the far side of the moon due to some astronomical phenomenon called libration. And because the moon s rotation upon its axis takes the same amount of time as the moon s revolution for orbiting around earth which is about 29 5 days. First the moon s orbit around earth is elliptical not circular so its rotation is sometimes ahead and sometimes behind its orbital motion.
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Nasa jpl caltech the far side of the moon looks very different than the near side see the first photo in this article. Our lunar companion rotates while it orbits earth. It s just that the amount of time it takes the moon to complete a revolution on its axis is the same it takes to circle our planet about 27 days. And second the moon s rotation axis is not at right angles to its orbit around the earth so we can sometimes see over or under its poles.Source : pinterest.com