Does the moon rotate?
1 Answer
Yes, the Moon rotates.
Explanation:
The Moon definitely rotates about its axis. The reason that it always presents the same face to the Earth is that it is tidally locked.
When the Moon was first formed it was much closer to the Earth and rotating much faster. The Earth's gravity had the effect of slowing the Moon's rotation which also caused it to move further away.
Ultimately the moon's orbital period and its day became the same length. This is a minimum energy configuration. When this happens it is called tidal locking.
In fact most Moons in the solar system are tidally locked to their parent.
Although we can only see 50% of the Moon's surface at any time, we can actually see almost 59% of the Moon's surface from the Earth over time. The reason for this is that the Moon wobbles in a process called libration.
