Why doesn't the moon spin?

Originally posted by Tom Bedlam
It does spin.

www.pbs.org...

Although from Earth's view the moon doesn't rotate

www.digipro.com...

Why Doesn't the Moon Rotate? In comparison, the tidal effect on the Moon is static because the Moon no longer rotates in relation to the Earth.

wiki.answers.com...

Does the Moon spin on its axis? No it doesn't ! If it was spinning/ rotating (on its own axis, by definition), and we could somehow stop its orbit around the earth (or even suddenly straighten it into a line), it should then continue spinning. It obviously won't. It will just sit there angularly motionless as it always has.

www2.enarm.org...

The reason why the Moon doesn’t rotate is because of weights that are placed at both poles which are magnetic in nature. There are 4 pyramids on the Moon, with 1 being at the far sides equator.

There is more than one tidal locking mode. Mercury, for example, is resonantly locked to the Sun at a 3:2 ratio.

en.wikipedia.org...

It was thought for some time that Mercury was tidally locked with the Sun. This was because whenever Mercury was best placed for observation, the same side faced inward. Radar observations in 1965 demonstrated instead that Mercury has a 3:2 spin–orbit resonance, rotating three times for every two revolutions around the Sun, which results in the same positioning at those observation points. The eccentricity of Mercury's orbit makes this 3:2 resonance stable.

Originally posted by Anunaki10

Although from Earth's view the moon doesn't rotate

Key word "Earth's point of view". If it didn't rotate, you would see the entire surface of the Moon, depending on how far west or east you traveled.

www.digipro.com...

Why Doesn't the Moon Rotate? In comparison, the tidal effect on the Moon is static because the Moon no longer rotates in relation to the Earth.

Again, same as the previous one, just different phrasing, here the key phrase "in relation to Earth".

Does the Moon spin on its axis?

Wikianswers is not exactly a great reference. Or the next two either...

4 pyramids on the Moon, with 1 being at the far sides equator.

That one's not worth bothering to respond to...

There is more than one tidal locking mode. Mercury, for example, is resonantly locked to the Sun at a 3:2 ratio.
...
The eccentricity of Mercury's orbit makes this 3:2 resonance stable.

Yep, good to see you agree with me here.

Originally posted by Anunaki10
www.pbs.org...

Although from Earth's view the moon doesn't rotate

OK. So what if from earth's view the Moon does not rotate? From outside the earth, the Moon DOES rotate.

From The Earth's view, the Sun and stars look to revolve around the earth -- but they really don't.

Originally posted by Bedlam

Originally posted by Anunaki10

Although from Earth's view the moon doesn't rotate

Key word "Earth's point of view". If it didn't rotate, you would see the entire surface of the Moon, depending on how far west or east you traveled.

You misunderstand something here,

Although from Earth's view the moon doesn't rotate

which means that the moon is tidally locked to the Earth, which again means that Moon does NOT rotate on it's own axis in relation to the Earth...

www.digipro.com...

Why Doesn't the Moon Rotate? In comparison, the tidal effect on the Moon is static because the Moon no longer rotates in relation to the Earth.

Again, same as the previous one,

You misunderstand something here again, so let me repeat this to you since you are struggling trying to understand that www.digipro.com...

Why Doesn't the Moon Rotate? In comparison, the tidal effect on the Moon is static because the Moon no longer rotates in relation to the Earth.

Wikianswers is not exactly a great reference.

It's at least thousands of times more reliable than you will ever be, and let me repeat it since you are struggling trying to understand that wiki.answers.com...

Does the Moon spin on its axis? No it doesn't ! IF it was spinning / rotating (on its own axis, by definition), and we could somehow stop its orbit around the earth (or even suddenly straighten it into a line), it should then continue spinning. It obviously won't. It will just sit there angularly motionless as it always has.

That one's not worth bothering to respond to...

Don't expect me to believe you on that, i think you are lying again...

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People

But the Earth doesn't rotate relative to a geostationary satellite. Doesn't that means the Earth isn't rotating either?

Originally posted by Anunaki10


You misunderstand something here,

Although from Earth's view the moon doesn't rotate

which means that the moon is tidally locked to the Earth, which again means that Moon does NOT rotate on it's own axis in relation to the Earth...

Yes! Glad to see you constantly keep agreeing with me. It does not rotate with relation to the Earth. That means it rotates once per orbit around the Earth. Otherwise, if it didn't rotate at all, it WOULD rotate with relation to the Earth.

In comparison, the tidal effect on the Moon is static because the Moon no longer rotates in relation to the Earth.

As before, this is exactly right. It doesn't rotate with relation to the Earth, which means it rotates once per orbit.

It's at least thousands of times more reliable than you will ever be, and let me repeat it since you are struggling trying to understand that

Simple spatial relationships are tough for you, aren't they? I imagine there's some sort of animation on the net for those that struggle with this. You ought to look for one.

Don't expect me to believe you on that, i think you are lying again...

Four out of five Nibirunians agree with me.

reply to post by Sliick


In addition to what Phage said, you can read more about this phenomenon at en.wikipedia.org...

It's very common in the Solar System. When the Moon formed, it did rotate (as seen from Earth) but gradually got tidally locked to Earth. This tidal effect also causes the Earth's spin to slow down.

I've read most of these "moon rotating" topics and they seem to be just be arguing semantics.

I think everyone agrees that the moon rotates on its own axis.

Does the Moon rotate in relation to the Earth? I think you can argue either way on this because it's an ambiguous statement.

Either way the Earth rotates about its own axis at the equator at 1030 mph
The moon rotates about its own axis at its equator at 10.3 mph

reply to post by Anunaki10


As shown in another thread, those links from which you cherry picked lines from go on to say that the moon does rotate on its axis.

Do you not read your links further than the one line, that if misread, could support your view that the moon doesn't rotate?

"From Earth's point of view" is like the "key word you look for ignoring the rest of the information.

Or is it that you don't want the truth?
From you pbs link:

Although from Earth's view the moon doesn't rotate, with respect to the sun it does. Take a look at the animation above. Look only at the moon. (The red dot marks a fixed point on the moon's surface.) See how it does rotate on an axis?

From your digipro link;

You might be struggling against the nuances in the meanings of the words "rotate" and "revolve." The Moon ROTATES about its axis at exactly the same rate as it REVOLVES around the Earth. That's an important point about tidal locking.

From your wikipedia link:

For example, the same side of the Earth's Moon always faces the Earth. A tidally locked body takes just as long to rotate around its own axis as it does to revolve around its partner. This causes one hemisphere constantly to face the partner body.

Your other two links, wikianswers and the other from Alex Collier, are not accurate.

Since only one side of the moon is always facing the core of the Earth
and the roots of the trees are always facing the core of the Earth,
we must assume that all the trees are spinning on their axis once every day

I'm in stitches.

Is there really anyone believing this propaganda that our moon is spinning on it's own axis?

a reply to: FIFIGI
Indeed, it's hilarious.

But since the Moon goes around the Earth every 28 days or so, wouldn't it be showing different side to Earth at different points in its orbit?

Here is why stars and planets start spinning .
take a huge cloud of gas and dust put it out side the galaxies effect so ( no other body can effect it .)
Now the dust and gas have gravity just a little bit but slowly will start clumping forming masses .
now just from the friction of the masses they start heating up causing the gas molecule to start moving .
Now some parts are hotter then others and this will cause the whole body to start spinning as one part is hotter then another and wala a star is born .
As for the smaller masses becoming plants takes longer and by that time the stars gravity and momentum has caused the planets to spin .
But if a body is to close to another larger body then the gravity effect swamps the smaller body and it will no longer spin on it access .
the moon is small the earth is large and the moon is close so the tidle effect has stopped the moon from spinning on it axess .
really someone saying science does not understand this is silly momentum imparts momentum .

Is there really anyone believing this propaganda that our moon is spinning on it's own axis?

If the Moon was not spinning at all (which means relative to the Solar System), then it would appear to rotate as it moved around the Earth. Imagine that you are looking down on the Earth-Moon system from above, and the Moon is at the top of the image. Draw a line through the centre of the Moon (from side to side), and write "FAR SIDE" in the top half (since this would be invisible to an observer on Earth at this moment). Now move the Moon halfway around it's orbit of the Earth (so that it is now at the bottom of the image), making sure to keep that FAR SIDE hemisphere pointing towards the top of the view (since the Moon is not supposed to be spinning in this little exercise). You will note that for an observer on Earth, the FAR SIDE is now in full view. In other words, the Moon will have appeared to rotate with respect to Earth observers, but it has not actually rotated at all relative to the Sun and Solar System.

Since in reality the same hemisphere of the Moon is always visible to observers on Earth, it stands to reason that the Moon is indeed rotating.

a reply to: FIFIGI

you can demonstrate the fact that the moon rotates on its axis once every 28 days - using nothing more than a cup and saucer

originally posted by: ignorant_ape
a reply to: FIFIGI

you can demonstrate the fact that the moon rotates on its axis once every 28 days - using nothing more than a cup and saucer

i really was happy that within two posts the author of the thread had accepted the rotation of the moon. But five pages in and a troll still denies makes me sad.

a reply to: FIFIGI

How do you consolidate the fact that if the moon didn't spin on its axis, we would see all of it over a year?

The very fact that we don't proves that it spins.

Just to be pedantic... you could argue that the moon does NOT spin on it's own axis, but rather the Earth spins the moon around the moon's axis through tidal locking.