this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2023
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Science Memes
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Thank you Eiji Aonuma, very cool.
Aside from being a meme, the factoid isn't even true.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_locking#Moons
All twenty known moons in the Solar System that are large enough to be round are tidally locked with their primaries [planets]
It just says other moons. Not all other moons. Meaning the meme isn't untrue... Right?
Pedantically speaking, yes. At least some small moons do freely rotate. But they are all very small and very far from their parent planet. If you were on the surface, you wouldn't see details.
Mars has two small moons close to it, but neither rotate relative to the surface. They're also really small and zip about super fast so they're cool for other reasons.
I was skeptical thank you for the confirmation. Especially because the time it takes to lock depends on the relative size of the bodies. Our moon being exceptionally big relatively to our planet, if it has locked, then relatively smaller moons should have locked long before.
Btw, the locking is not perfect, there's a little oscillation of the moon called libration, so we can actually see about 59% of it over the years.
Knows that we aren't to be trusted, can't turn it's back on us for a second.
Or is it just waiting for its second chance to hit us?
Second chance???
The moon is not to be trusted. It’s hiding a secret alien base on its dark side.
It's not aliens, it's Nazis, moon Nazis. (Lookup "Iron Sky" if you don't know it.)
It doesn't show us its face. Where do you think the word "mooning" comes from?
Kanye West takes notes
All of the other moons are severely autistic. Ours is balls-out confident. "Yeah, bitch, what. You blinked."
It's tidally locked to earth. Earth isn't tidally locked to it. Happens slowly due to gravity and differential mass. Relatively stable satellites end up tidally locked given the time. Pretty sure lack of water/liquids/atmosphere hastens the process.
Yeah, Earth's moon isn't the only satellite to tidally lock to its planet. In fact, several are.
Photos and Deimos are tidally locked to Mars. 8 of Jupiter's moons and 15 of Saturn's. Pluto and Charon.
Mercury is tidally locked to the sun, but it's in 3:2 resonance rather than 1:1.
Now those are some fun facts.
Can you ELI5 that last one?
Mercury orbits the sun every 88 earth days. It spins on its axis every 59 earth days, relative to an outside observer (sidereal day.) That makes the solar day (from sunrise to sunrise) 179 earth days long.
So in a certain sense, a 'day' on Mercury is 2.034090909090 'years' long? (Solar day divided by orbiting the sun, lol)
No. I rounded off the numbers. A Mercury day is exactly 2 Mercury years. Which is why it's "in resonance". That means that gravity will speed up or slow down the rotation to keep the ratio stable over time.
Oh that's really neat!
Guys please upvote we all need an eli5
The Moon .... shocked and stunned to see that life survived after that impact .... and to see the idiots that evolved after
Homo sapiens is just a spark from moon's pov.
The earth isn't flat, the moon is
I might believe this one.
No please not another one
It needs to face us so it can tell our tides what to do. If it turned around the tide wouldn't hear it.
I thought this was a science community?
PROLONGED EYE CONTACT
Boo?
AH! You started me, I didn't see you there.
We're just soooo good looking 🙂
It's the heaviest part of the moon which face us. And even when it will reach it's farthest and definitive orbit ( the moon slowly move away from us), it will still the same face toward us.
Also our big moon has to deal with sharing space with our horde of trophy trash moons
Can it ever happen to change?
Like an asteroid shower who throws a little momentum on this bastard?