How tidal locking works and Why we see same side of moon always, This moon thing is confusing me very much, I watched many videos and made a understanding but i can’t picture it, too hard for my brain
In: 1
Imagine that the moon isn’t tidally locked. As it rotates by, side of the moon facing the earth feels a gravitational pull towards it, and as it rotates away the gravitational pull acts to slow it down just a tiny bit. Over time this “gravitational friction” slows the moons rotation until it becomes tidally locked, where the same face of the moon is always facing earth. This is a stable condition because if a force were to try to change the rotation speed of the moon in either direction, than the gravitational friction will come into play again.
This is a tough one to answer on Reddit, because it needs a diagram. Specifically this diagram:
https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/a/21585
The Moon is already locked to the Earth. The Earth’s rotation is slowing down as it is still in the process of locking to the Moon. Let’s focus on the Earth, because it’s easier to understand something ongoing and because I couldn’t find a good diagram for lunar locking. 🙂
1) The Moon raises tides on the Earth: a “tidal bulge” is formed in the ocean and also the rock.
2) The Earth’s rotation carries the bulge around so it’s not aligned with the Moon. (See first diagram)
3) The Moon’s gravity pulls harder on the side of Earth that has a bulge closer to the Moon (see second diagram). This means there’s an unbalanced gravity force that tries to slow down the Earth’s rotation, just like you can stop a spinning tire by pushing on one side of it but not the other.
The exact same process happened to the Moon, but because the Earth is so much bigger its tidal effect on the moon was larger and locking happened faster.
Imagine that the moon isn’t tidally locked. As it rotates by, side of the moon facing the earth feels a gravitational pull towards it, and as it rotates away the gravitational pull acts to slow it down just a tiny bit. Over time this “gravitational friction” slows the moons rotation until it becomes tidally locked, where the same face of the moon is always facing earth. This is a stable condition because if a force were to try to change the rotation speed of the moon in either direction, than the gravitational friction will come into play again.
This is a tough one to answer on Reddit, because it needs a diagram. Specifically this diagram:
https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/a/21585
The Moon is already locked to the Earth. The Earth’s rotation is slowing down as it is still in the process of locking to the Moon. Let’s focus on the Earth, because it’s easier to understand something ongoing and because I couldn’t find a good diagram for lunar locking. 🙂
1) The Moon raises tides on the Earth: a “tidal bulge” is formed in the ocean and also the rock.
2) The Earth’s rotation carries the bulge around so it’s not aligned with the Moon. (See first diagram)
3) The Moon’s gravity pulls harder on the side of Earth that has a bulge closer to the Moon (see second diagram). This means there’s an unbalanced gravity force that tries to slow down the Earth’s rotation, just like you can stop a spinning tire by pushing on one side of it but not the other.
The exact same process happened to the Moon, but because the Earth is so much bigger its tidal effect on the moon was larger and locking happened faster.
This is a tough one to answer on Reddit, because it needs a diagram. Specifically this diagram:
https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/a/21585
The Moon is already locked to the Earth. The Earth’s rotation is slowing down as it is still in the process of locking to the Moon. Let’s focus on the Earth, because it’s easier to understand something ongoing and because I couldn’t find a good diagram for lunar locking. 🙂
1) The Moon raises tides on the Earth: a “tidal bulge” is formed in the ocean and also the rock.
2) The Earth’s rotation carries the bulge around so it’s not aligned with the Moon. (See first diagram)
3) The Moon’s gravity pulls harder on the side of Earth that has a bulge closer to the Moon (see second diagram). This means there’s an unbalanced gravity force that tries to slow down the Earth’s rotation, just like you can stop a spinning tire by pushing on one side of it but not the other.
The exact same process happened to the Moon, but because the Earth is so much bigger its tidal effect on the moon was larger and locking happened faster.
On Earth we have tides which move the ocean about and change the water level at beaches. This is caused by the Moon’s gravity as it orbits around the Earth tugging on the water and creating a bulge of ocean that moves around the world
The Earth also creates a bulge in the rocks that make up the Moon. The Moon used to rotate quicker but that resulted in a tidal bulge of rocks that moved along its surface. Rocks don’t flow well so this used up a good amount of energy and eventually sapped enough energy from the Moon’s rotation that the Moon now rotates at the same speed it orbits Earth meaning the bulge no longer moves along its surface
The tides on Earth also slow the Earth’s orbit to match the Moon’s 28 day orbit and tugs the Moon along speeding up its orbit trying to match the Earth’s 24 hour rotation, but the Earth is just so much more massive than the Moon that this process takes a lot longer and hasn’t happened yet(it won’t for billions of years either so don’t panic!)
On Earth we have tides which move the ocean about and change the water level at beaches. This is caused by the Moon’s gravity as it orbits around the Earth tugging on the water and creating a bulge of ocean that moves around the world
The Earth also creates a bulge in the rocks that make up the Moon. The Moon used to rotate quicker but that resulted in a tidal bulge of rocks that moved along its surface. Rocks don’t flow well so this used up a good amount of energy and eventually sapped enough energy from the Moon’s rotation that the Moon now rotates at the same speed it orbits Earth meaning the bulge no longer moves along its surface
The tides on Earth also slow the Earth’s orbit to match the Moon’s 28 day orbit and tugs the Moon along speeding up its orbit trying to match the Earth’s 24 hour rotation, but the Earth is just so much more massive than the Moon that this process takes a lot longer and hasn’t happened yet(it won’t for billions of years either so don’t panic!)
On Earth we have tides which move the ocean about and change the water level at beaches. This is caused by the Moon’s gravity as it orbits around the Earth tugging on the water and creating a bulge of ocean that moves around the world
The Earth also creates a bulge in the rocks that make up the Moon. The Moon used to rotate quicker but that resulted in a tidal bulge of rocks that moved along its surface. Rocks don’t flow well so this used up a good amount of energy and eventually sapped enough energy from the Moon’s rotation that the Moon now rotates at the same speed it orbits Earth meaning the bulge no longer moves along its surface
The tides on Earth also slow the Earth’s orbit to match the Moon’s 28 day orbit and tugs the Moon along speeding up its orbit trying to match the Earth’s 24 hour rotation, but the Earth is just so much more massive than the Moon that this process takes a lot longer and hasn’t happened yet(it won’t for billions of years either so don’t panic!)
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