Why do we only see one side of the moon?

Question

Why do we only see one side of the moon?

Answer 1

The folks at NASA can explain this far better than I ever could.

Answer 2

The moon's period of rotation around its axis is exactly equal to its period of revolution around the earth. This is the effect of tidal interactions over billions of years.

(Because of irregularities in the orbit, we see a little further around one side of the moon at one time, and a little further around the other side at others, but the same "face" is always presented to us.)

Answer 3

this is easy cause the moon is shape of the shpere its not flat where we can only see one side .thats why unless if it was rotating then yea.

Answer 4

It is thought that the moon was once part of the earth and it broke away. The speed of rotation of the earth and of the moon would then be the same and consequently it would present mostly one face (actually about 4/7) of its total surface area to earth at different times.

I am not sure if this break-away theory is current and the reason for almost the same rotation speed is that when the moon was more liquid and later cooled to become solid, the friction forces from its own tides stabilized it to face only in one direction relative to the earth.

Much less of the central core of the moon is now liquid compared to the 40 mile crust around the earth's liquid interior. For this reason the earth is still spinning relative to the sun.

Answer 5

A boat in water stays right side up because of its shape.  The weight is designed to go a certain way to keep it upright.  For some unknown reason, the moon's mass is no even.  It's heavier on our side than the other.  Just like boat, that keeps it upright.

Answer 6

Because the moon is shy!!

Answer 7

You will find the answer at NASA's web site

here's a link

Answer 8

A short, simple answer:

Because the Moon and Earth are locked gravitationally into a synchronous rotation/revolution pattern. This means that from our viewpoint, the same face of the moon is always rotated to face us as the moon goes around the earth every month.

Complicated Answer:

http://starryskies.com/The_sky/events/lu...