Tides on The Moon
Tides on the Moon.
There are two tidal bulges on the moon for the same reason there are two tidal bulges on the earth, near and far sides of each body are pulled differently. So the moon is pulled slightly away from a spherical shape into a football shape, with its long axis pointing toward the earth. But the earth’s tides, the tidal bulges are stationary, with no “daily” rising and falling of moon tides. Since the moon takes 27.3 days to make a single revolution about its own axis, the same part of its surface faces the earth all the time. This is because the elongated moon’s center of gravity is slightly displaced from its center of mass, so whenever the moon’s long axis is not lined up toward earth, the earth exerts a small torque on the moon. This tends to twist the moon toward aligning with the earth’s gravitational field, like the torque aligns a compass needle with a magnetic field. So we see there is a reason why the moon always shows us its same face!
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7 Responses to “Tides on The Moon”
On October 18, 2009 at 5:25 pm
I learn something new today. Thank you for sharing.
On October 18, 2009 at 9:05 pm
I new that the moon faced us, but I never knew why. Thanks for the info.
On October 19, 2009 at 8:01 am
Very informative.
On October 19, 2009 at 5:27 pm
thank you Cebuanaeyez…
On October 19, 2009 at 5:28 pm
thanks Videomark
On October 19, 2009 at 8:21 pm
This was interesting, enjoyed reading!
On October 20, 2009 at 12:53 pm
thanks mo hoyal!
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