Moon only object in space that does not spin on axis...

Originally posted by HowardRoark
All I can think while reading this thread is: What has happened to our educational system? What has happened to science education in this country?

This is depressing. Even worse is the realization that the kids posting these idiotic theories will one day grow up to be old enough to vote.

Well... interests of capitalism/corporations/ruling rich elite doesn't require people having knowledge and capability to independent thinking with OWN brains.
So it's only logical that current mission of education system (and big money owned media) is to brainwash everyone to not think with their own brains and believe everything what ruling elite/those knowing "right" words tell them?

www.newspeakdictionary.com...
www.newspeakdictionary.com...
www.newspeakdictionary.com...


But now back to topic, after all this isn't philosophy forum.

"Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts."
-Albert Einstein

At least someone got little forward this time, althought only half step.

If moon would keep same side towards the sun it would still rotate because it orbits around sun, in this case its rotation period just would be locked with its orbital period around sun.
Only case when it wouldn't rotate is when it "would continuously look to same spot in the sky". (other stars than sun, which are practically stationary for this purpose)


And about Mercury... that's "the thing" itself, because of coupling of its rotation and orbital periods its day (time from sun rise to next one) is three of its years.
Here's more about it.
www.solarviews.com...

What this NASA gif [copy] shows is that the moon ~B~O~B~S~



It looks to me like a ball bobbing on top of the surface of a swimming pool.

Is that how solar magnetism works?

"Just thinking, but is it not the Earth molten iron and nickel core that keeps us spinning?"

No. Like ET says, it's spinning because of angular momentum. As a matter of fact, Jupiter, which probably doesn't have a surface per se, spins very fast (10 hr for a rotation) and, since it's mostly gaseous, the equator spins a lot faster. which is why Jupiter is more of a flattened spheroid than the Earth is.

"I mean, the fact that it generates an EM field creates the umbra shield, right? And seeing as how the moon is just a chunk or rock, it would have no magnetic core, no atmoshpere, and no wind."

Yes and no. The spinning iron in the earth's core probably is what gives rise to our magnetic field, which the moon doesn't have. Nuy Jupiter has a hell of a magnetic field, and there's no iron there.

Atmosphere and wind don't have anything to do with a magnetic field, as far as I know.

"This is why one side of the moon is called the 'dark side' and the other the 'light side'. The dark side is covered with craters as it is always facing away, and the light side is basically mark-free compared to it's counterpart because it's well, facing us."

Well, there are less craters on the side facing the earth, but I'd hardly consider it crater-free.

By the reason that the moon and other satellites have a spin which equals their revolution is because of a phenomenon called "Tidal Lock"; you can read about it at www.digipro.com... or yarchive.net... .

To all of these so called genius' saying the moon rotates are full of it! it does not rotate, it revolves around earth with no rotation-with the same side of the moon always facing earth. Thats is WHY, no matter where you are on the planet, you always see the same side of it (unless of course, the earth is shading it ie; new moon- but even when you cant see the moon, the same side is still facing us)
You dont need science class to figure that one out. Further more, I dont believe that even the most esteemed scientists have solved ALL of the mysteries of the moon, so people shouldnt criticize others for asking questions, especially when so-called facts and theories are proven wrong by new discoveries every day. So read all the articles, and text books you want if it makes you feel superior, but remember that a FACT is only as true as the evidence it has to support the opinion, and when new evidence is discovered to discredit the previous evidence, we realize that we really dont ever know anything for sure.

Originally posted by Vivek
@Howard -
1) What's the source of moon's age as 4.3 Billion years?

2) How do you explain Moon's density of 3.3g/c3 as opposed to Earth's of 5.5g/c3. Apart from the fact that it does not have a dense core like Earth does.

3)

The Fission Theory: This theory proposes that the Moon was once part of the Earth and somehow separated from the Earth early in the history of the solar system. The present Pacific Ocean basin is the most popular site for the part of the Earth from which the Moon came. This theory was thought possible since the Moon's composition resembles that of the Earth's mantle and a rapidly spinning Earth could have cast off the Moon from its outer layers. However, the present-day Earth-Moon system should contain "fossil evidence" of this rapid spin and it does not. Also, this hypothesis does not have a natural explanation for the extra baking the lunar material has received.

source:starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov...

So the Moon and Earth can not be physically tied together.

Anyways, I would be interested in your theory as to where the Moon came from?

And then again, it is a debate for the ages and I don't expect us to solve it right here right now.
I'm quoting my book and you are quoting yours. We can find a ton of contradictions in each other's posts till kingdom come.

PEACE

I would think that the "extra baking" recieved by the moon would be relative to the fact that it doesnt have an atmosphere to protect it. But what do I know?

Question: Do we know what the Moon weighs--really--or are we guessing?
How do we know?

Just what IF, it were so much more compressed and dense than the earth, that it actually formed a counter-weight, to hold Earth in its grip and keep Earth from spinning recklessly.

Maybe that's the function of moons--tying a planet to its rate of rotation so it doesn't flop around.

But that's just an idea.

Originally posted by Merger
Also that the moon may be artificial is the fact that its hollow. The moon when sent a resonance frequency to the surface makes a 'PING' sound. This happens when objects are hollow. If it was not hollow, then it would make a 'THUD' sound.

Uh no, it doesn't do that either.

The moon reverberates longer than expected when struck with a meteorite etc. The term 'rang like a bell' was used to describe the extended period of vibration inside the moon. Not 'hollow like a bell' or 'it went PINNNGGGG'. It just means the moon retained its vibration for longer than was expected.


As far as most of the rest of the thread, I too despair at the state of the education systems of the world. Pay attention people, READ the posts by E_T and Commanderkeenkid. They are giving you the answers. Its so frustrating to watch one poster give the answers to the question in one post, then in the next post have someone posing some other ignorant theory about it without bothering to read the links or information provided.

If Venus' day is longer then a year, then Venus must rotate in other way. I think I read somewhere.
It realy doesn't make sense of talking that Moon rotates. If it is always facing the same side to Earth it simply doesn't rotate.
Any airplane then rotates in that meaning.


[edit on 31-12-2004 by MankoW]

c00ster says:

"To all of these so called genius' saying the moon rotates are full of it! it does not rotate, it revolves around earth with no rotation-with the same side of the moon always facing earth."

Work with me on this, c00ster.

If the moon didn't rotate, then it would always be facing the same way -- not to the Earth, but to some point in the sky. Let's assume that a particular crater is pointing toward the constellation Sagittarius, just for grins. Let's say further that, on the first of the lunar month, that particular crater is seen by us on the left side of the moon's disk.

With me so far?

Now as the moon moves around to the opposite side of the earth (and, since we're assuming that the moon doesn't rotate, that particular crater would still be pointing toards Sagittarius) Now, since the moon has revolved (but not rotated per your assertion, that crater would be on the right side of the moon's diks and we would see everything to the left of that crater that we couldn't see before.

But, of course, that's not the way it works, is it?

Now you can, if you want to, get a ping-pong ball and actually do the experiment yourself. Paint two dots on the pingpong ball about 90 degrees apart. Align the ball so that one dot is pointing toward a central source (which is the Earth) and another dot is pointing toward a spot on the wall about ten feet away (which is "Sagittarius").

Now, walk around that central point which is, say, a foot from the ping-pong ball, keeping the other dot pointing toward "Sagittarius". Does the other dot continue to point toward the "Earth"?

No.

If you move the ball around a central point with a dot on that ball pointing towards that central point, you will have to rotate the ball once during the revolution (or rotate yourself, which is the same thing) to keep that dot pointing toward the central mass.

"You dont need science class to figure that one out.'

You said it, not me, bubba. But since you and the rest of the people with these theories aren't bothering to read real answers (or, heaven forbid, actually going out and researching something or experimenting for yourselves!); and, since you haven't taken any of those "science classes" you denigrate, I don't suppose there's any value in people like keen, E_T, or me wasting our time with you.

[edit on 31-12-2004 by Off_The_Street]

This thread seriously makes my brain hurt. I was going to post a lengthy reply to nearly all the coments or questions pople have posted, but it's just not worth it. All the answers have been stated, restated, and then stated again. If people would read the posts by E_T, HowardRoark, Der Kapitan, junglejake and myself they would be set and there would be no further need for discussion.

Originally posted by junglejake
There's another heavenly body which does the exact same thing...I just can't remember which it is. I'm thinking it's Uranus in it's relation to the sun.

Close... Uranus rotates with it's axis inclined 98 degrees to the ecliptic. So for one quarter of its orbit it's northpole faces the Sun, one quarter of the orbit the southpole faces the Sun, and for half its orbit the sides of the planet are getting the Sun.

I'm sure there are some smaller moons of the gas giants that spin similar to Luna, but I don't know which (if any) offhand.

Now that I've posted this, if you have any other questions, go back and read through this thread first! Chances are the answer is already in here.

[edit on 12/31/2004 by cmdrkeenkid]

Originally posted by c00ster
To all of these so called genius' saying the moon rotates are full of it! it does not rotate, it revolves around earth with no rotation-with the same side of the moon always facing earth. Thats is WHY, no matter where you are on the planet, you always see the same side of it (unless of course, the earth is shading it ie; new moon- but even when you cant see the moon, the same side is still facing us)

I'm certain somebody else has pointed this out, but the fact you DO see the same side of the moon no matter what point on Earth you are REQUIRES rotation of the moon... else we'd be seeing different parts of the moon.

You dont need science class to figure that one out.

Yes, apparently you do.

[edit on 12-31-2004 by Valhall]

Originally posted by Off_The_Street
Yes and no. The spinning iron in the earth's core probably is what gives rise to our magnetic field, which the moon doesn't have. Nuy Jupiter has a hell of a magnetic field, and there's no iron there.

In case of Jupiter it's metallic hydrogen which causes magnetic field because metallic hydrogen conducts electricity well. (and if someone happens to remember something from school's physics classes electric current creates magnetic field)
Actually this metallic hydrogen itself could be called as electrical charges because pressure (over 4 million bars) and temperature has broken hydrogen atoms resulting ionized matter, separate protons and electrons meaning basically it's in same state as matter in the sun which is called plasma.

BTW, If Jupiter's magnetosphere could be seen it would show ten times bigger than moon. Also Jupiter's inner magnetosphere contains plasma (ionized atom nucleus and free electrons) whose temperature is 300 million kelvins.

www.space.com...
www.solarviews.com...
www.nineplanets.org...

defrag 99....Great picture..coolest thing ive seen in awhile.

Yeah, very cool pic defrag.

It reminds me of a ball floating on the water too.. when a ball is in moving water but it stays in the same place - rotating in the opposite direction to the water's movement.

It's pretty simple.

If the moon didn't rotate at all, then each area of the earth would see a different face.

It rotates once per orbit in the opposite direction of the orbit, keeping the one face pointed at Earth all the time.. like we're under the water looking up at the bottom of the floating ball.

Well, this is very easy question, and thus easy answer. Depending on which point you take as reference Moon
A--->is rotating if you look from solar system or fix star system on its moving/rotation, so it consists of moving around the Earth plus rotating with same period around its axis.
B----> Earth Moon system sepArate from the Sun and all the others Moon is just revolving the Earth without rotating if it would have rotated around any axis it would be impossible to stand still against the Earth always same side. It really is like any object going around the Earth, any artificial satelite spy plane etc goes around the Earth, and by the rotation split hair discussion we should say it rotates (spyplane satelite etc) around its axis with the same period. No one has ever said that, correct me if I'm wrong.

The moon isn't hollow, it's just not very dense. Earth is the largest, and I'm not 100% sure but probably the most dense solid planet in the solar system. The Earth's mass relative to the moon explains why it interacts with the moon the way it does. The earths mass and further distance from the sun explains why it doesn't react to the sun the way the moon reacts to us (although the earth is slowing down and eventually will react to the sun the way the moon reacts to earth- just as has already happened to venus if I read correctly).

Think about a small person trying to move in opposition to a professional football player- the movement of the small person would come to correlate directly to that of the large person, and the large person would be slowed down a little.
If I'm not mistaken this is exactly what is happening to the Earth and moon.

As Michio Kaku emphasizes so often- the simpler the illustration, the more accurately it will explain complex processes.

off the street- I may be wrong about this, but it seems to me that the moon does go around the earth, which travels around the sun, but, and of course I may be wrong, by always seeing the same surface of the moon-I would assume that the moon does not spin as it goes around the earth-and that would still put the moon in different spots of the sky when observed. Maybe we are saying the same thing, but I may have the meanings of rotate and revolve mixed up. OR maybe I am just confused all together, but if the moon DOES spin as it circles the earth, I would think that we would have seen other surfaces of it- Also, the moon wouldnt be so devastated by impacts on just one side of it. I will try to find a site to double check my beliefs (diagram or something), but I do think we are saying the same thing, because when reading what your reply was it totally made sense to me just the same.

Originally posted by The Vagabond
The earths mass and further distance from the sun explains why it doesn't react to the sun the way the moon reacts to us (although the earth is slowing down and eventually will react to the sun the way the moon reacts to earth- just as has already happened to venus if I read correctly).

Wrong, it's tidal forces caused by the moon which slows down earth's rotation, so Earth is just synchronizing its rotation to moon's orbital period.
Also tidal bulge caused by moon's gravity tries to tug moon forward (because Earth's rotation carries that bulge forward compared to direction of moon) in its orbit increasing its speed which in turn causes its orbit to grow little by little. (meaning earth "gives" energy of its rotation to moon)

curious.astro.cornell.edu...
curious.astro.cornell.edu...


www.astronomycafe.net...

BTW, this site looks very nice so go through it.
www.astronomycafe.net...

c00ster, yeah it's a bit confusing. I think of it like this:

Imagine you got this big ball here. It's earth.

And the moon is over the USA here. A smaller ball with a smiley face on it.

The moon, with it's smiley face down on USA, goes halfway around the world.. around to India.

India sees the same face.

Doesn't that mean the moon has now done half a rotation?