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The far side of the Moon is the lunar hemisphere that always faces away from Earth, opposite to the near side, because of synchronous rotation in the Moon's orbit. Compared to the near side, the far side's terrain is rugged, with a multitude of impact craters and relatively few flat and dark lunar maria ("seas"), giving it an appearance closer ...
Earth's Moon's rotation and orbital periods are tidally locked with each other, so no matter when the Moon is observed from Earth, the same hemisphere of the Moon is always seen. Most of the far side of the Moon was not seen until 1959, when photographs of most of the far side were transmitted from the Soviet spacecraft Luna 3. [20]
If this had not happened, the Moon would now lie much closer to the ecliptic and eclipses would be much more frequent. [10] The rotational axis of the Moon is not perpendicular to its orbital plane, so the lunar equator is not in the plane of its orbit, but is inclined to it by a constant value of 6.688° (this is the obliquity).
Since the Moon's axial tilt is only 1.5° with respect to the ecliptic (the plane of Earth's orbit around the Sun), this effect is small. Once every 18.6 years, [ 1 ] the lunar north pole describes a small circle around a point in the constellation Draco , while correspondingly, the lunar south pole describes a small circle around a point in ...
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite.It orbits at an average distance of 384,400 km (238,900 mi), about 30 times the diameter of Earth. Tidal forces between Earth and the Moon have synchronized the Moon's orbital period (lunar month) with its rotation period at 29.5 Earth days, causing the same side of the Moon to always face Earth.
An equilibrium tidal bulge does not really exist on Earth because the continents do not allow this mathematical solution to take place. Oceanic tides actually rotate around the ocean basins as vast gyres around several amphidromic points where no tide exists. The Moon pulls on each individual undulation as Earth rotates—some undulations are ...
Orbital inclination and rotation. When the Moon is 5.14° north of the ecliptic, its north pole is tilted 6.68° away from the Earth. The orientation of the plane containing the vectors normal to the orbits and the Moon's rotational axis rotates 360° with a period of about 18.6 years, whereas the Earth's axis precesses with a period of around 26,000 years, so the line-up of this illustration ...
The Moon rises 30 to 70 minutes (should be a fixed number, about 50 minutes, if it's the same 13 degrees) later each day/night than the day/night before, due to the fact that the Moon moves 13 degrees every day. Hence, the Earth must move 13 degrees after completing one rotation for the Moon to be visible.