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Imagine there's a football stuck on the end of Big Ben's minute hand with the side facing the centre of the clock painted a different colour to the side facing away from it. If you watch the ball over the course of an hour from the street you'll see that it rotates once, but at no time could you see the 'backside' of the ball if you were standing at the centre of the clock. The moon does exactly the same relative to the Earth.
Two points to make clear:
The different colours have nothing to do with which half of the moon is illuminated by the Sun.
Not being stuck on the end of a minute hand, the moon in actual fact does have a slight 'wobble' in its rotation which results in our seeing 'round the edge' some of the time. As a result we can in fact see about 56% of the moon's surface from Earth.
Two points to make clear:
The different colours have nothing to do with which half of the moon is illuminated by the Sun.
Not being stuck on the end of a minute hand, the moon in actual fact does have a slight 'wobble' in its rotation which results in our seeing 'round the edge' some of the time. As a result we can in fact see about 56% of the moon's surface from Earth.
There are lots of little green men living on the Dark Side.
They probably control it.
Dundurn's explanation is spot on. If the Moon always faced in the same direction, when it got round the other side of its orbit, the people on the other side of the world would see the other side of it.
Hold you two fists out in front of you. Your right thumb faces your left hand. Now cross your hands over. Now, your right little finger is facing your left hand. So in order for your feft hand to see the same view of your right hand, your right hand would have had to turn through 180 degrees.
Just like the Moon !!
They probably control it.
Dundurn's explanation is spot on. If the Moon always faced in the same direction, when it got round the other side of its orbit, the people on the other side of the world would see the other side of it.
Hold you two fists out in front of you. Your right thumb faces your left hand. Now cross your hands over. Now, your right little finger is facing your left hand. So in order for your feft hand to see the same view of your right hand, your right hand would have had to turn through 180 degrees.
Just like the Moon !!
"If the Moon always faced in the same direction, when it got round the other side of its orbit, the people on the other side of the world would see the other side of it."
ok, I get this and get that the 'dark side' isn't always dark. But if the moon is spinning on its axis as it orbits the earth, wouldn't the 'dark side' face us at some point?
I'm not usually this dense..honestly!
ok, I get this and get that the 'dark side' isn't always dark. But if the moon is spinning on its axis as it orbits the earth, wouldn't the 'dark side' face us at some point?
I'm not usually this dense..honestly!
Monty, focus on Dundurns answer only, imagine you are sitting at the base of the minute hand looking at the ball. You are on Earth and the ball is the moon. You always see the same side, it's really not that difficult. Do not think of the moon as spinning at all in the normal sense. Yes I know it does actually do one revolution per orbit but relative to a viewer on earth it appears not.
It�s a matter of language.
If you sit on the nearside of the moon - where we on Earth could �see� you - and waited two weeks to stand up, then at the time you stand up, you would be on the far side and we wouldn�t be able to see you. If you sat down again, in two weeks time we would be able to see you again.
So, yes, we do see the far side of the moon, but only when that far side has rotated to the near side. At any given point there is always going to be �side� we can see and a side we can�t , but effectively they take it in turns.
So we only see the nearside, which at several points in time has been the farside, but semantically speaking, we can�t �see the far side� unless we send a probe round to the back of the moon, which scientists have done.
If you sit on the nearside of the moon - where we on Earth could �see� you - and waited two weeks to stand up, then at the time you stand up, you would be on the far side and we wouldn�t be able to see you. If you sat down again, in two weeks time we would be able to see you again.
So, yes, we do see the far side of the moon, but only when that far side has rotated to the near side. At any given point there is always going to be �side� we can see and a side we can�t , but effectively they take it in turns.
So we only see the nearside, which at several points in time has been the farside, but semantically speaking, we can�t �see the far side� unless we send a probe round to the back of the moon, which scientists have done.
