Alexander Lewis
May 12, 2024
The moon might appear to be constant, but it rotates on its axis, just like Earth. However, there's a reason behind why we always see the same side of the moon, called, tidal locking.
Tidal locking occurs due to gravitational attraction between the Earth and the moon. This pull stretches both towards each other, causing a bulge on the moon that faces Earth.
Robert Tyler, a physical oceanographer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, resembles this bulge with an American football. He said: "That would be the shape if all the fluids and solids could respond instantaneously". However, this bulge is not instantaneous because the rocks on the moon and oceans resist the pull, creating friction.
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Because the moon’s rotation is effective by Ocean tides, this friction slows the moon's rotation. Eventually, the moon's rotation matches its revolution around Earth — around one month. This is why we only see one side of the moon from Earth's surface.
While spacecraft like Lunar 3, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and China’s Chang’e 4, have captured images of the far side of the moon but people on the Earth can’t see it.
