Why is there a Dark side of the Moon?

Unless im misstaken doesn't most things in space rotate, and if so why doesn't the moon Rotate?

Why does only one side face Earth?

Is this Normal? if so then why?

it does rotate - 1 rotation = 1 orbit around Earth. So the same side or face is always pointed at us. There is no "dark side" technically. Dark side refers to the side that can't be seen from Earth, but it is lit by the Sun. Make sense now?

Our moon is in what is called "tidal lock" with the Earth. Tidal lock is when the "day" of an object also equals it's "year". In other words, if the Earth revolved around the Sun in 24 hours, instead of 365 days (crude example, I know) the the Earth would always show the same face to the sun. There would be a place on the globe that would always be at high noon, no matter what time it actually was.

Many moons in the solar system are tidally locked with their respective planets.

Mercury is also tidally locked with the Sun, if I recall correctly.

I hope you find this helpful...

bomb squad, mercury is no tidally locked with the sun, but that was a popular theroy back in the 50s. IN fact I think Asimov worte a series called "Lucky star" where Mercury was tidally locked and had a habitable ring. Venus was an ocean planet, and Mimas (one of saturns moons) was nothing more then a snowball.

There is a differance between the far side of the moon, and the dark side of the moon. The Far side of the moon is the part we cannot see from earht, which is independat of the dark side of the moon which is jsut the area that doesn't have sunlight hitting it

Originally posted by Jehosephat


There is a differance between the far side of the moon, and the dark side of the moon. The Far side of the moon is the part we cannot see from earht, which is independat of the dark side of the moon which is jsut the area that doesn't have sunlight hitting it

Jehosephat the dark side and the far side are two ways to say the same thing i thought? Maybe a better question for you is, what part of the moon receives no sunlight?? I think you're confused, unless of course it's me who's confused....definately not out of the question.

according to the album:

There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact it's all dark.

Originally posted by Rren
Jehosephat the dark side and the far side are two ways to say the same thing i thought? Maybe a better question for you is, what part of the moon receives no sunlight?? I think you're confused, unless of course it's me who's confused....definately not out of the question.

no they are two differant things.... here let me show you with a neat animated gif



Our Moon's appearance changes nightly. This time-lapse sequence shows what our Moon looks like during a lunation, a complete lunar cycle. As the Moon orbits the Earth, the half illuminated by the Sun first becomes increasingly visible, then decreasingly visible. The Moon always keeps the same face toward the Earth. The Moon's apparent size changes slightly, though, and a slight wobble called a libration is discernable as it progresses along its elliptical orbit. During the cycle, sunlight reflects from the Moon at different angles, and so illuminates different features differently. A full lunation takes about 29.5 days, just under a month (moon-th).

the only place on the moon that never gets illuminated is probly at the bottom of some crater near the poles.

Yes, there is no dark side of the moon other than the Pink Floyd album.

The correct term is "far side."

mercury is no tidally locked with the sun,

I stand corrected. Mercury's day is actually 2 Mercurian YEARS long.

If you were born on Mercury, you could be 2 years old, and 1 solar DAY old at the same time.

Mercury

Originally posted by djohnsto77
Yes, there is no dark side of the moon other than the Pink Floyd album.

The correct term is "far side."

on the pink floyd album there is no darkside. thus my quote, which is that last line spoken on the album. turn it up real loud to hear it.

On the subject of Mercury, Larry Niven wrote a short story entitled, "The Coldest Place." It was about the dark side of Mercury, but shortly after he published, it was found out that it did rotate, and so he asked the publisher if he wanted him to return the money. The publisher didn't, and it was published.

There was a post about this just the other day, all your answers can be found here ---> The Dark Side of the Moon.....

Its because of tha same reason you have a shadow in the sunlight, the sunny side is in the way of the dark side. Beautiful song too isnt it.