How the moon moves in relation to the earth. Our natural satellite is the moon

The moon has been accompanying our planet in its great space travel for several billion years. And she shows us, earthlings, from century to century, always the same lunar landscape. Why do we only admire one side of our satellite? Does the Moon rotate around its axis or does it hover motionless in space?

Characteristics of our space neighbor

There are satellites in the solar system much larger than the moon. Ganymede is a satellite of Jupiter, for example, twice as heavy as the Moon. But on the other hand, she is the largest satellite relative to the mother planet. Its mass is more than a percent of the earth's, and its diameter is about a quarter of the earth's. There are no more such proportions in the solar family of planets.

Let's try to answer the question of whether the moon rotates on its axis by taking a closer look at our closest cosmic neighbor. According to the theory accepted today in scientific circles, our planet acquired a natural satellite while still a protoplanet - not completely cooled down, covered with an ocean of liquid incandescent lava, as a result of a collision with another planet, smaller in size. Therefore, the chemical compositions of the lunar and terrestrial soils are slightly different - the heavy nuclei of the colliding planets merged, which is why the terrestrial rocks are richer in iron. The moon got the remnants of the upper layers of both protoplanets, there is more stone.

Does the moon rotate

To be precise, the question of whether the moon rotates is not entirely correct. Indeed, like any satellite in our system, it turns around the mother planet and, together with it, revolves around the star. But, the Moon is not quite usual.

No matter how you look at the Moon, it is always turned towards us by the crater Tycho and the sea of ​​Tranquility. "Does the moon rotate around its axis?" - from century to century the earthlings asked themselves a question. Strictly speaking, if we operate in geometric terms, the answer depends on the chosen coordinate system. The Moon really does not have axial rotation relative to the Earth.

But from the point of view of an observer located on the Sun-Earth line, the axial rotation of the Moon will be clearly noticeable, and one polar revolution will be equal in duration to the orbital one up to a fraction of a second.

It is interesting that this phenomenon in the solar system is not unique. So, Pluto's satellite Charon always looks at its planet with one side, just like the satellites of Mars - Deimos and Phobos.

In scientific parlance, this is called synchronous rotation or tidal capture.

What is the tide?

In order to understand the essence of this phenomenon and to confidently answer the question of whether the moon rotates around its own axis, it is necessary to disassemble the essence of tidal phenomena.

Imagine two mountains on the lunar surface, one of which "looks" directly at the Earth, while the other is located at the opposite point of the lunar ball. Obviously, if both mountains were not part of one celestial body, but revolved around our planet independently, their rotation could not be synchronous, the one that is closer, according to the laws of Newtonian mechanics, should rotate faster. That is why the masses of the lunar ball, located at points opposite to the Earth, tend to "run away from each other."

How the Moon "stopped"

It is convenient to analyze how tidal forces act on a particular celestial body using the example of our own planet. After all, we also revolve around the Moon, or rather the Moon and the Earth, as it should be in astrophysics, "dance" around the physical center of mass.

As a result of the action of tidal forces, both at the nearest point and at the point farthest from the satellite, the level of the water covering the Earth rises. Moreover, the maximum amplitude of the ebb and flow can reach 15 meters or more.

Another feature of this phenomenon is that these tidal "humps" every day bend around the surface of the planet against its rotation, creating friction at points 1 and 2, and thus slowly stop the Earth in its rotation.

The impact of the Earth on the Moon is much stronger due to the difference in mass. And although there is no ocean on the moon, tidal forces act on rocks just as well. And the result of their work is obvious.

So does the moon rotate on its axis? The answer is yes. But this rotation is closely related to the movement around the planet. Tidal forces over millions of years have aligned the Moon's axial rotation with the orbital.

And what about the Earth?

Astrophysicists argue that immediately after the large collision that caused the formation of the Moon, the rotation of our planet was much larger than it is now. The day lasted no more than five hours. But as a result of the friction of tidal waves on the ocean floor, year after year, millennium after millennium, the rotation has slowed down, and the present day has already lasted 24 hours.

On average, each century adds 20-40 seconds to our days. Scientists assume that in a couple of billion years our planet will look at the Moon in the same way as the Moon at it, that is, one side. True, this, most likely, will not happen, since even earlier the Sun, having turned into a red giant, will “swallow” both the Earth and its faithful companion - the Moon.

By the way, tidal forces give earthlings not only an increase and decrease in the level of the world ocean in the equator. By acting on the masses of metals in the earth's core, deforming the hot center of our planet, the Moon helps maintain it in a liquid state. And thanks to the active liquid core, our planet has its own magnetic field, which protects the entire biosphere from the deadly solar wind and deadly cosmic rays.

The Moon is said to be a satellite of the Earth. The meaning of this is that the Moon accompanies the Earth in its constant movement around the Sun - she accompanies her. While the Earth is moving around the Sun, the Moon is moving around our planet.

The movement of the Moon around the Earth can be generally imagined as follows: then it is in the same side where the Sun is visible, and at this time it moves, as it were, towards the Earth, rushing along its path around the Sun: then it moves to the other side and moves in the same the direction in which our land is racing. In general, the Moon accompanies our Earth. This actual movement of the Moon around the Earth can easily be noticed in a short time by any patient and attentive observer.

The proper movement of the moon around the earth is not at all in the fact that it rises and sets or, together with the entire starry sky, moves from east to west, from left to right. This apparent movement of the Moon occurs due to the daily rotation of the Earth itself, that is, for the same reason as the Sun rises and sets.

As for the Moon's own motion around the Earth, it is reflected in something else: the Moon seems to lag behind the stars in their apparent daily motion.

Indeed: notice some stars in the visible close proximity to the Moon on the given evening of your observations. Remember the exact position of the moon relative to these stars. Then, look at the moon a few hours later or the next evening. You will be convinced that the moon lagged behind the stars you noticed. You will notice that the stars that were from the Moon to the right are now further from the Moon, and the Moon has become closer to the stars to the left, and the closer, the more time has passed.

This clearly indicates that, apparently moving for us from east to west, due to the rotation of the Earth, the Moon at the same time slowly but steadily moves around the Earth from west to east, completing a full revolution around the Earth in about a month.

This distance is easy to imagine by comparing it with the apparent diameter of the moon. It turns out that in one hour the Moon passes in the sky a distance approximately equal to its diameter, and in a day - an arc path equal to thirteen degrees.

the dotted line shows the orbit of the Moon, that closed, almost circular path along which, at a distance of about four hundred thousand kilometers, the Moon moves around the Earth. It is not difficult to determine the length of this huge path if we know the radius of the lunar orbit. The calculation leads to the following result: the orbit of the Moon is approximately two and a half million kilometers.

There is nothing easier to get now the information of interest to us about the speed of the Moon around the Earth. But for this * we need to know more precisely the period during which the Moon will run through this entire huge path. Rounding off, we can equate this period with a month, that is, approximately consider it equal to seven hundred hours. Dividing the length of the orbit by 700, we can establish that the Moon covers a distance of about 3600 km per hour, that is, about one kilometer per second.

This average speed of the Moon's movement shows that the Moon is not moving around the Earth as slowly as it might seem from observations of its displacement among the stars. On the contrary, the Moon is rapidly rushing in its orbit. But since we see the Moon at a distance of several hundred thousand kilometers, we barely notice this rapid movement of it. Likewise, the courier train, observed by us in the distance, seems to be barely moving, while it sweeps past close objects with extreme speed.

For more accurate calculations of the speed of the moon, readers can use the following data.

The length of the lunar orbit is 2,414,000 km. The period of the Moon's revolution around the Earth is 27 days 7 hours. 43 minutes 12 sec.

Didn't any of the readers think that there was a typo in the last line? Not long before that (p. 13) we said that the cycle of the lunar phases takes place in 29.53 or 29% of the day, and now we indicate that the full revolution of the Moon around Earth occurs in 27g / h day.If the indicated data are correct, then what is the difference? We will talk about this a little further.

LIBRATION OF THE MOON: The Moon makes a complete revolution around the Earth in 27.32166 days. In exactly the same time, it makes a revolution around its own axis. This is not an accidental coincidence, but is due to the influence of the Earth on its satellite. Since the period of the Moon's revolution around its axis and around the Earth is the same, the Moon must always face the Earth with one side. However, there are some inaccuracies in the rotation of the Moon and its movement around the Earth.

The rotation of the Moon around its axis occurs very evenly, but its speed of revolution around our planet varies depending on the distance from the Earth. The minimum distance from the Moon to the Earth is 354 thousand km, the maximum is 406 thousand km. The point of the lunar orbit closest to the Earth is called perigee from "peri" (peri) - around, about, (near and "re" (ge) - earth], the point of maximum distance - apogee [from the Greek. "Apo" (aro) - above, above and “re.” At closer distances from the Earth, the speed of the Moon's orbit increases, so its rotation around its axis “lags behind.” As a result, a small part of the far side of the Moon, its eastern edge, becomes visible to us. in the second half of its near-earth orbit, the Moon slows down, as a result of which it "rushes" a little to turn around its axis, and we can see a small part of its other hemisphere from the western edge. it seems that it slowly oscillates around its axis, first for two weeks in the east direction, and then the same amount in the west. (True, such observations are practically hampered by the fact that usually part of the moon's surface is obscured by the Earth. - Ed.) We also oscillate for some time about the equilibrium position. In Latin, scales are "libra" (libra), therefore, the apparent oscillations of the moon, caused by the unevenness of its movement in its orbit around the earth with uniform rotation around its axis, is called the libration of the moon. Librations of the Moon occur not only in the east-west direction, but also in the north-south direction, since the Moon's axis of rotation is inclined to the plane of its orbit. Then the observer sees a small section of the far side of the moon in the regions of its north and south poles. Thanks to both types of libration, almost 59% of the Moon's surface can be seen (not simultaneously) from the Earth.

GALAXY

The sun is one of the many hundreds of billions of stars gathered in a giant lenticular cluster. The diameter of this cluster is about three times its thickness. Our solar system is located in its outer thin edge. The stars are like individual light points scattered in the surrounding darkness of distant space. But if we look along the diameter of the lens of the assembled cluster, we can see innumerable other star clusters that form a ribbon of flickering soft light that stretches across the entire sky.

The ancient Greeks believed that this "path" in the sky was formed by drops of spilled milk, and called it the galaxy. "Galakticos" (galakticos) Greek milky from "galaktos" (galaktos), which means milk. The ancient Romans called it "via lacttea", which literally means the Milky Way. As soon as regular telescope surveys began, nebulous clusters were discovered among distant stars. The English astronomers father and son Herschel, as well as the French astronomer Charles Messier, were among the first to discover these objects. They were called nebulas from the Latin nebula fog. This Latin word was borrowed from the Greek language. In the Greek "nephele" (nephele) also meant a cloud, fog and the goddess of clouds was called Nefela. Many of the detected nebulae turned out to be dust clouds that covered parts of our Galaxy, blocking light from them.

When viewed, they looked like black objects. But many "clouds" are located far beyond the galaxy and are clusters of stars as large as our own cosmic "home". They seem small only because of the gigantic distances that separate us. The closest galaxy to us is the famous Andromeda nebula. Such distant star clusters are also called extragalactic nebulae "extra" (extra) in Latin means the prefix "out", "over". To distinguish them from the relatively small dust formations inside our Galaxy. There are hundreds of billions of such extragalactic nebulae - galaxies, as we now speak of galaxies in the plural. Moreover, since galaxies themselves form clusters in outer space, we speak of galaxies of galaxies.

INFLUENZA

The ancients believed that the stars influence the fate of people, so there was even a whole science that was engaged in determining how they do it. We are talking, of course, about astrology, the name of which comes from the Greek words "aster" (aster) - a star and "logos" (logos) - a word. In other words, an astrologer is "talking about the stars." Usually "-logy" serves as an indispensable component in the names of many sciences, but astrologers have discredited their "science" so much that for the true science of the stars they had to find another term: astronomy. The Greek word "nemein" (nemein) means a routine, a pattern. Therefore, astronomy is a science that "orders" the stars, investigating the laws of their motion, occurrence and extinction. Astrologers believed that the stars emit a mysterious force, which, flowing down to Earth, controls the fate of people. In Latin, pour in, drain, penetrate - "influence" (influere), this word was used when they wanted to say that the stellar power "pours" into a person. In those days, they did not know the true causes of illness, and it was quite natural to hear from a doctor that the illness that visited a person was a consequence of the influence of the stars. Therefore, one of the most common diseases, which we know today as influenza, was called influenza (literally - influence). This name was born in Italy (it. Influenca).

The Italians drew attention to the link between malaria and swamps, but overlooked the mosquito. To them, he was just a small annoying insect; they saw the real reason in the miasma of bad air over the swamps (it was undoubtedly "heavy" due to the increased humidity and gases emitted by decaying plants). The Italian word for something bad is "mala", so they called bad, heavy air (aria) "malaria", which eventually became the generally accepted scientific name for the well-known disease. Today, in Russian, no one, of course, will call the flu influenza, although in English it is called that, however, in colloquial speech it is most often abbreviated to a short "flu" (flu).

Perihelion

The ancient Greeks believed that celestial bodies move in orbits that are ideal circles, because a circle is an ideal closed curve, and the celestial bodies themselves are perfect. The Latin word "orbit" (orbita) means a track, a road, but it is formed from "orbis" - a circle.

However, in 1609 the German astronomer Johannes Kepler proved that each planet moves around the Sun in an ellipse, in one of the focuses of which is the Sun. And if the Sun is not in the center of the circle, then the planets at some points of their orbits approach it more than at others. The point of the orbit of a celestial body revolving around it, closest to the Sun, is called perihelion.

In Greek, "peri-" (peri-) is part of a compound word meaning about, around, and "hellos" (hellos) is the sun, so perihelion can be translated as "near the sun." In a similar way, the Greeks began to call the point of the greatest distance of the celestial body from the Sun "aphelios" (arheliqs). The prefix "apo" (aro) means away, from, therefore this word can be translated as "away from the Sun." In the Russian transmission, the word "apgelios" has turned into an aphelion: the Latin letters p and h are read side by side as "f". The elliptical orbit of the Earth is close to a perfect circle (here the Greeks were right), so the difference between the perihelion and aphelion of the Earth is only 3%. The terms for celestial bodies describing orbits around other celestial bodies were formed in a similar way. So, the Moon revolves around the Earth in an elliptical orbit, while the Earth is in one of its focuses. The point of the Moon's closest approach to the Earth was called the perigee "re", (ge) in Greek, the Earth, and the point of the greatest distance from the Earth - the apogee. Astronomers are familiar with binary stars. In this case, two stars revolve in elliptical orbits around a common center of mass under the action of gravitational forces, and the greater the mass of the companion star, the smaller the ellipse. The point of closest approach of the revolving star to the main star is called the periastron, and the point of greatest distance is the apoastron from the Greek. “Astron” is a star.

Planet - definition

Even in ancient times, a person could not help but notice that the stars occupy a constant position in the sky. They moved only in a group and made only small movements around a certain point in the northern sky. It was very far from the sunrise and sunset points where the Sun and Moon appeared and disappeared.

Every night there was an imperceptible shift in the whole picture of the starry sky. Each star rose 4 minutes earlier and set 4 minutes earlier than the previous night, so in the west the stars gradually left the horizon, and new ones appeared in the east. A year later, the circle was closed, and the picture was restored. However, there were five star-like objects in the sky that glowed as brightly, if not brighter than the stars, but did not follow the general routine. One of such objects today could be located between two stars, and tomorrow it could be displaced, after another night the displacement was even greater, etc. Three such objects (we call them Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) also made a full circle in the heavens, but in a rather complicated way. And the other two (Mercury and Venus) did not go too far from the Sun. In other words, these objects "roamed" between the stars.

The Greeks called their tramps "planetes", so they called these heavenly tramps planets. In the Middle Ages, the Sun and the Moon were counted among the planets. But by the 17th century. astronomers have already realized the fact that the sun is the center of the solar system, so celestial bodies that revolve around the sun began to be called planets. The Sun has lost the status of a planet, and the Earth, on the contrary, has acquired it. The Moon also ceased to be a planet, because it revolves around the Earth and only goes around the Sun together with the Earth.

The moon does not rotate on its axis, is it? For many years, scientists have been arguing on this topic, but they have not found an answer that would satisfy everyone. Everyone puts forward their hypotheses and tries to prove them. Today there is a controversial situation on this issue.

Moon shape

The study of the lunar surface is of great interest in the scientific community. Some conduct its study together with the Earth, considering it as one whole system.

When the Moon makes its move around the Earth, then its position relative to the Sun also changes. Our planet is always facing one and the same side of it. The line that separates the halves is called a terminator. Since the moon is a satellite, it moves in an ellipsoidal orbit.

As it travels around the Sun, the illuminated side of the Moon appears to change shape. However, a celestial body always remains round, and due to a change in the angle of incidence of the sun's rays on the surface, it seems that its shape has changed. During the month, the Moon is visible from Earth from several different angles. The main ones are:

• new moon;
• first quarter;
• full moon;
• last quarter.

With a new moon, the moon is not visible in the sky, since this phase corresponds to the location of the satellite between the sun and the earth. Light from the Sun does not fall on the Moon and, accordingly, does not bounce off, therefore, its half, visible from the Earth, is not illuminated.

In the first quarter, the right half of the Moon is illuminated by the Sun, since it is at an angular distance of 90 ° from the star. In the last quarter, the position is the same, only the left part is illuminated.

Coming into the fourth phase - the full moon, the Moon is in opposition to the Sun, so it fully reflects the light falling on it, and the entire illuminated half can be seen from the Earth.

Land

Back in the 16th century, it was proven that the Earth has its own rotation. However, how it began and what preceded it is unknown. There are several theories about this. For example, during the formation of planets, dust clouds combined and founded the planet, at the same time they attracted others with these bodies and could set them in motion, and then it happened by inertia. This is one of the hypotheses that has not found clear confirmation. In this regard, another question arises: why does the moon not rotate around its axis? Let's try to answer.

Moon rotation

A prerequisite for the body to rotate around its own axis is the presence of this axis, while the moon does not. The proof of this is presented in this form: The moon is a body, which we will split into a large number of points. When rotated, these points describe trajectories in the form of concentric circles. That is, it turns out that they are all involved in the rotation. And if there was an axis, some points would remain stationary, and the side visible from the Earth would change. This does not happen.

In other words, centrifugal forces directed towards the center are absent on the satellite, therefore the moon does not rotate either.

The movement of a celestial body

Scientists use various research methods to prove the Moon's own rotation. One of them remains the consideration of motion relative to the stars.

They are taken for motionless bodies, from which the counting is carried out. Using this method, it turns out that the satellite has its own rotation relative to the stars. In this case, when asked why the moon does not rotate on its axis, the answer will sound that it rotates. However, this observation is incorrect. Since the centripetal control of the Moon is determined by the Earth, it is also necessary to study the possibilities of a celestial body relative to the Earth.

Orbit or trajectory

To understand, consider concepts such as "orbit" and "trajectory". They differ.

• closed and curve;
• shape - round or ellipsoidal;
• lies in the same plane;

Trajectory:

• a curve that has a beginning and an end;
• straight or curved shape;
• is in one plane or three-dimensional.

Why doesn't the moon rotate on its axis? It is known that the body can only take part in two types of movement at the same time. The Moon has these two permissible types: around the Earth and around the Sun. Accordingly, there can be no other types of rotation.

If we look at the trajectory of the Moon from Earth, we will see a complex curve.

The presence of an orbit is regulated, but it can change if the orbit changes - it is described by the laws of physics, the trajectory - by the laws of mathematics.

Earth-Moon system

In some textbooks, the Moon and the Earth are a single whole system. Their common center of mass, which does not coincide with the center of the Earth, is calculated mathematically, and it is stated that rotation is going on around it. However, from the point of view of astrophysics, any rotation around this center is absent, as can be seen by observing the Moon and the Earth through special modern equipment.

Why doesn't the moon rotate on its axis? Is it true? The rotation of a celestial body is spin-spin and spin-orbital. The moon makes a rotational spin-orbital motion around an axis passing through the center of the earth.

People on Earth see one side of the moon all the time, and it does not change. For practical proof, you can experiment with a small weight.

Take a weight, tie it to a rope and twist it. In this case, the weight will be the Moon, and the person holding the other end of the rope will be the Earth. Rotating a weight around him, a person sees only one side of it, that is, people on Earth see one side of the moon. The second person who approaches, who stands at a distance, will see all sides of the weight despite the fact that it does not rotate around its axis. The Moon does the same thing, it does not rotate on its axis.

Space age

For a long time, scientists have studied only the visible side of the moon. There was no way to know what the opposite looks like. But with the development of the space age in the middle of the 20th century, humanity was able to see the other side.

As it turned out, the lunar hemispheres are strikingly different from each other. So, the surface of the side facing the Earth is covered with basalt spoons, and the surface of the second hemisphere is strewn with craters. These differences are still of interest to scientists. It is believed that many years ago the Earth had two satellites, one of which collided with the Moon and left such imprints on its surface.

Conclusion

The moon - the behavior of which has not been precisely studied. Why doesn't the moon rotate on its axis? Many scientists have been asking this question for several years and cannot find an unambiguously correct answer. Some scientists are sure that rotation still exists, but it is invisible to people, because the periods of rotation of the Moon around its axis and around the Earth coincide. Other scientists deny this fact and admit the Moon's rotation only around the Sun and the Earth.

The question of why the moon does not rotate on its axis was considered in this article, and with the help of an example (about a weight) it was proved.

Why doesn't the moon rotate and we only see one side? June 18th, 2018

As many have already noticed, the Moon is always turned to the Earth by the same side. The question arises: is the rotation around their axes of these celestial bodies synchronous relative to each other?

Although the Moon rotates around its axis, it always faces the Earth with the same side, that is, the Moon's rotation around the Earth and rotation around its own axis is synchronized. This synchronization is caused by the friction of the tides that the Earth produced in the lunar shell.

Another mystery: does the moon rotate on its axis at all? The answer to this question lies in the solution of the semantic problem: who is at the forefront - an observer on Earth (in this case, the Moon does not rotate around its axis), or an observer in extraterrestrial space (then the only satellite of our planet rotates around its axis).

Let's do this simple experiment: draw two circles of the same radius, touching each other. Now imagine them as discs and mentally roll one disc along the edge of the other. In this case, the rims of the discs must be in continuous contact. So, how many times, in your opinion, the rolling disk will turn around its axis, making a full revolution around the static disk. Most will say once. To test this assumption, take two coins of the same size and repeat the experiment in practice. And what is the bottom line? The rolling coin has time to rotate twice on its axis before it makes one revolution around the stationary coin! Are you surprised?

On the other hand, does the rolling coin rotate? The answer to this question, as in the case of the Earth and the Moon, depends on the observer's frame of reference. The moving coin makes one revolution relative to the starting point of contact with the static coin. In relation to an outside observer, in one revolution around a stationary coin, the rolling coin turns twice.

Following the publication of this coin problem in Scientific American in 1867, the editorial board was literally inundated with letters from indignant readers who held the opposite opinion. They almost immediately drew a parallel between the paradoxes with coins and celestial bodies (the Earth and the Moon). Those who adhered to the point of view that a moving coin in one revolution around a stationary coin once manages to turn around its own axis, were inclined to think about the inability of the moon to rotate around its axis. Readers' activity regarding this problem has increased so much that in April 1868 it was announced that the controversy on this topic was stopped in the pages of Scientific American. It was decided to continue the controversy in the magazine The Wheel, specially devoted to this "great" problem. One issue at least came out. In addition to illustrations, it contained a variety of drawings and diagrams of intricate devices created by readers in order to convince editors that they were wrong.

Various effects generated by the rotation of celestial bodies can be detected using devices like Foucault's pendulum. If it is placed on the Moon, it turns out that the Moon, revolving around the Earth, makes revolutions around its own axis.

Can these physical considerations act as an argument confirming the rotation of the Moon around its axis, regardless of the observer's frame of reference? Oddly enough, from the point of view of general relativity, probably not. In general, we can assume that the Moon does not revolve at all, it is the Universe that revolves around it, creating gravitational fields like the Moon revolving in a stationary space. Of course, it is more convenient to take the Universe as a stationary frame of reference. However, if you think objectively, with regard to the theory of relativity, the question of whether this or that object really rotates or is at rest is generally meaningless. Only relative motion can be "real".
To illustrate, imagine that the Earth and the Moon are connected by a barbell. The rod is fixed on both sides rigidly in one place. This is a situation of mutual synchronization - one side of the Moon is visible from the Earth, and one side of the Earth is visible from the Moon. But this is not the case with us, this is how Pluto and Charon rotate. And we have a situation - one end is fixed rigidly on the Moon, and the other moves along the surface of the Earth. Thus, one side of the Moon is visible from the Earth, and different sides of the Earth from the Moon.

Instead of a barbell, gravity acts. And its "rigid attachment" causes tidal phenomena in the body, which gradually either slow down or accelerate the rotation (depending on whether the satellite rotates too quickly or too slowly).

Some other bodies in the solar system are already in this synchronization too.

Thanks to photography, we can still see more than half of the Moon's surface, not 50% - one side, but 59%. There is a phenomenon of libration - the apparent oscillatory motion of the moon. They are caused by irregularities in orbits (not ideal circles), tilts of the axis of rotation, and tidal forces.

The moon is in tidal grip on the Earth. Tidal capture is a situation when the period of revolution of the satellite (Moon) around its axis coincides with the period of its revolution around the central body (Earth). In this case, the satellite always faces the central body with the same side, since it revolves around its axis for the same time it takes to orbit around its partner. Tidal capture occurs in the process of mutual motion and is characteristic of many large natural satellites of the planets of the solar system, and is also used to stabilize some artificial satellites. When observing a synchronous satellite from the central body, only one side of the satellite is always visible. When viewed from this side of the satellite, the central body "hangs" motionless in the sky. On the other side of the satellite, the central body is never visible.

Moon facts

There are moon trees on earth

Hundreds of tree seeds were brought to the moon during the 1971 Apollo 14 mission. Former American Forestry Officer (USFS) Stuart Roose took the seeds as personal cargo as part of the NASA / USFS project.

Upon their return to Earth, the seeds were germinated and the resulting moon seedlings were planted throughout the United States as part of the country's bicentennial celebration in 1977.

There is no dark side

Place your fist on the table, fingers down. You can see the back of it. Someone on the other side of the table will see knuckles. This is how we see the moon. Since it is tidally blocked in relation to our planet, we will always see it from the same point of view.
The notion of the "dark side" of the moon came out of popular culture - remember Pink Floyd's 1973 album "Dark Side of the Moon" and the thriller of the same name in 1990 - and really means the far, night side. The one that we never see and which is opposite to the side closest to us.

Over a period of time, we see more than half of the moon, thanks to libration

The moon moves along its orbital path and moves away from the Earth (at a rate of about one inch per year), accompanying our planet around the sun.
If you looked up at the Moon as it accelerated and slowed down on this journey, you would also see it wobble from north to south and west to east in a motion known as libration. As a result of this movement, we see part of the sphere, which is usually hidden (about nine percent).

However, we will never see another 41%.

Helium-3 from the Moon could solve the energy problems of the Earth

The solar wind is electrically charged and from time to time collides with the Moon and is absorbed by the rocks of the lunar surface. One of the most valuable gases in this wind that is absorbed by the rocks is helium-3, a rare isotope of helium-4 (commonly used for balloons).

Helium-3 is perfect for meeting the needs of fusion reactors with subsequent energy generation.

One hundred tons of helium-3 could meet the energy needs of the Earth for a year, according to the calculations of Extreme Tech. The lunar surface contains about five million tons of helium-3, while there is only 15 tons on Earth.

The idea is this: we fly to the moon, extract helium-3 in the mine, collect it in tanks and send it to Earth. True, this may not happen very soon.

Is there some truth in the myths about full moon madness?

Not really. The assumption that the brain, one of the most watery organs of the human body, is influenced by the moon, is rooted in legends that are several thousand years old, even in the time of Aristotle.

Since the gravitational pull of the Moon controls the tides of the Earth's oceans, and humans are 60% water (and 73% brain), Aristotle and the Roman scientist Pliny the Elder believed that the Moon should have a similar effect on ourselves.

This idea gave rise to the terms "lunar madness", "transylvanian effect" (which became widespread in Europe during the Middle Ages) and "lunar madness". Films of the 20th century added fuel to the fire, linking the full moon to psychiatric disorders, car accidents, murders and other incidents.

In 2007, the government of the British seaside town of Brighton ordered additional police patrols to be sent during full moons (and on payday too).

Yet science says there is no statistical link between human behavior and a full moon, according to several studies, one of which was conducted by American psychologists John Rotton and Ivan Kelly. It is unlikely that the Moon affects our psyche, rather, it simply adds light, in which it is convenient to commit crimes.

Lost moonstones

In the 1970s, the Richard Nixon administration distributed stones brought from the lunar surface during the Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 missions to leaders of 270 countries.

Unfortunately, more than a hundred of these stones have gone missing and are believed to have gone to the black market. While at NASA in 1998, Joseph Gutheinz even conducted a covert operation called Lunar Eclipse to end the illegal sale of these stones.

What was all this hype about? A pea-sized lump of moonstone was valued at $ 5 million on the black market.

The moon belongs to Dennis Hope

At least he thinks so.

In 1980, exploiting a loophole in the 1967 UN Space Property Treaty that "no country" could claim the solar system, Nevada resident Dennis Hope wrote to the UN and announced the right to private property. He was not answered.

But why wait? Hope opened a lunar embassy and began selling one-acre plots for $ 19.99 each. For the UN, the solar system is almost the same as the world's oceans: outside the economic zone and owned by every inhabitant of the Earth. Hope claimed to have sold extraterrestrial real estate to celebrities and three former US presidents.

It is unclear whether Dennis Hope really does not understand the wording of the treaty or is trying to force the legislature to make a legal assessment of its actions so that the development of heavenly resources begins under a more transparent legal environment.

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