Originally posted by ArMaP
Judging by the difference in the number of craters on the far when compared to the near side, the Moon must have kept this orbit for many thousands of
years, so I think it will be some more thousands until it changes it enough for us to see "the whole of the Moon".
Thousands? It's been the same side for billions of years actually. According to
Wikipedia tidal
locking occurred over a very short timescale of a thousand years or less.
Originally posted by KATSUO
wouldnt it slip.. adjust.. move a little.. over time..
being as wobbly as it is...
Tidal lock is not a coincidence, it is the result of tides slowing down the rotation of the Moon. I mean it's an ongoing process. Tidal lock is here
to stay. Would you expect a spinning ball to start rotating again, just a bit, after it has stopped spinning? The "wobble" (libration), OTOH, is a
consequence of the non-uniform speed of the Moon around the Earth.
Originally posted by Shadow_Lord
Short term, no. Long term, probably. The Moon is locked with the Earth at it's current orbit distance. That distance is slowly changing. So thousands
of years (maybe just a few hundred) as the distance changes, the rotation will no longer match the orbit speed.
No, the rotation period will continue to increase to match the revolution period.
[edit on 2008-5-29 by nablator]
