Moon rotates on its axis, but why always it's same face appears visible to us, why not the other side?

Question

Moon rotates on its axis, but why always it's same face appears visible to us, why not the other side?

Answer 1

Because it rotates exactly as fast, as it moves around Earth.

Answer 2

I always relate the moon's rotating and revolving to watching someone on one of those merry go rounds you see in the park...a child playing on the turntable would run and jump onto it, then would hold on, facing the center of the roundtable...from the child's viewpoint, he can see Dad standing some distance away, then he can't....Dad , standing and looking at the child can see his face, then his right side, then his back, etc.  From Dad's viewpoint, the child is rotating....from the kid's viewpoint, he's holding on tight, not rotating at all.  Dad, of course, is the sun...the kid is the moon, and the center of the turntable is the earth.

Answer 3

The Moon rotates at the same rate as it orbits the Earth, that is why we always see the same side of the Moon  from the Earth surface. To see the other side we must circle the moon in a spaceship.

Answer 4

The moon does not rotate on its axis as earth does.  That is why we always see the same side of the moon.

Answer 5

Gravitational locking.

The Moon's axial rotation rate equals the revolution rate around Earth. Therefore, we will always only see one side of the Moon. It is called gravitational locking. This is a common effect when objects are close to one another.

Eventually (in a few billion years), the Earth will also be gravitationally locked to the Moon and will always show the same side towards the Moon.

This can also happen to planets if they are close to the parent star such as in some red dwarf systems.

http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/...

Answer 6

It's core is shifted towards the Earth because Earth's gravitational field "pulled" it when it was melted. This is one of reasons why...