Moon

QuantumGravity · Post by **QuantumGravity** » Fri Sep 03, 2004 11:51 pm

Not all the planet's moons are in a synchronous rotation...

Post by **Airconvent** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 3:14 am

FIRNALDO wrote:Is it the same as other planets with moons?

not necessary. how they interact is iaw with their mass and effect of their gravity on each other....in Jupiter's and Saturn's case, because they are so big, their moons do not affect it as much as our moon affects the earth.
but they do cause some minor wobbling of the planet much like how our 9 planets causes the sun to wobble ever so slightly. Scientists can infer the existence of planets around other stars from this wobbling...

A 5 YeaR Old · Post by **A 5 YeaR Old** » Sun Sep 05, 2004 9:58 pm

the wobbling caused by 9 planets gonna be complicated, so how do they sort it out? i saw the footage of a asteroid spinning on 3 axis and it was kind of chaotic and i am pretty amazed and impressed that they can locate that 3 axis accurately

Post by **Airconvent** » Mon Sep 06, 2004 1:13 am

A 5 YeaR Old wrote:the wobbling caused by 9 planets gonna be complicated, so how do they sort it out? i saw the footage of a asteroid spinning on 3 axis and it was kind of chaotic and i am pretty amazed and impressed that they can locate that 3 axis accurately

remember that our solar system is already 5 billion years old (a couple of more zeroes added to your age!) . all those "raw materials" that did not achieve stability were naturally eliminated early in its history by being absorbed by the existing 9 planets, etc. What you see today are the "leftovers" that managed to achieve equilibrium amongst themselves.
the equilibrium remains as long as there is no change in the status quo.
in reality, some minor changes do take place, so the solar system 2-3 billion years from now may be a slightly different system as it is today.
but that's not our concern since we would have destroyed ourselves way before that. we are only a few hundred thousand years into our existence and already we have depleted 60% of our natural resouces. how that can be sustain for the next 1000-2000 years is anybody's guess...

rich

NGC 5139 · Post by **NGC 5139** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 1:46 pm

It is true that we mostly see only one side of the moon facing us. However, from time to time, we can see about 55% of the moon when the hidden side tilts towards us a little.

carlogambino · Post by **carlogambino** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 7:43 pm

Yes, due to libration.