posted on Oct, 19 2016 @ 06:39 PM
originally posted by: pikestaff
The moon rotates, on its axis, or around the earth? why do we only ever see the one face of the moon?
It rotates once on its axis per revolution around Earth.
That's due to it being tidally locked to Earth. Tidal locking is not uncommon, as we know of at least 30 other moons in the solar system that are
tidally locked.
Pluto and its major moon Charon are tidally locked in an interesting manner -- they are tidally locked
to each other. That means that as Pluto
and Charon orbit around a common point between them, Pluto always only shows one face to Charon, and Charon always only shows one face to Pluto.
They, too, rotate once on their axis per each revolution/orbit around each other.