the view of the Moon from our perspective was always this face or we would see any other side at some moment?

Question

We now see this face, the “rabbit”. And the others?

In: Planetary Science

Answer 1

The Moon is tidally locked, meaning it rotates as the same speed it orbits. That is why the same side of the moon is always facing us.

[This is what the other side looks like](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f7/Far_side_of_the_Moon.png/1280px-Far_side_of_the_Moon.png)

It doesn’t have any of the gray seas that we are familiar with because they were formed by cooling lava when the Moon was formed. The crust on the far side of the Moon was much thicker, so the lava couldn’t reach the surface to make those seas.

We believe this is the case because when the Moon was formed, there were actually two moons that collided to form the one we are familiar with. The smaller moon became the thick crust on the far side of the Moon.

The thicker crust on the far side also suggests that the Moon has been tidally locked since very early in its lifetime. The Moon has, however, been slowly drifting away, so over the last few hundred million years, it would have appeared larger. No human could ever have witnessed this larger Moon, though.