Questions about moons

[bdewoody]

Question one. Is there anything advantageous to us in the fact that our moon keeps the same face pointing toward us?<br /><br />Question two. Do any other moons do the same respective to their parent planet? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em><font size="2">Bob DeWoody</font></em> </div>

 

[3488]

Answer to Question one. I don't think there is anything advantageous to the<br />fact that the moon keeps the same face turned towards us.<br /><br />Answer to question two. All of the MAJOR moons, like the Jovian Galileans, <br />Amalthea, Thebe, Adrastea, Metis, Saturn's major moons (not Phoebe), Uranus's & Neptune's <br />do follow the same behaviour.<br /><br />Mars's Phobos & Deimos also do.<br /><br />The outer minor moons of the giant planets certainly don't. They have their own rotational periods,<br />independent of orbital periods.<br /><br /><font color="yellow">Edited to correct awful typos as correctly identified by Brigandier</font><br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[brigandier]

Didn't have your coffee yet, eh "Amdrew"? <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <br /><br />"ratational"-rotational<br />"Jonian" - Jovian

 

[vogon13]

Angular momentum transfers between earth and moon have modified moon's orbit and day length of both objects.<br /><br />24 hour (23h 56m sidereal) day for earth is quite comfortable to me, and I think most folks would find even a subtly different value to be rather annoying.<br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[nexium]

We can build a space elevator on the Moon that passes though (Earth-Moon) L1 about 50,000 miles long. If the moon did not keep the same face toward Earth , a moon space elevator would be much more difficult. Neil

 

[neilsox]

Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>We can build a space elevator on the Moon that passes though (Earth-Moon) L1 about 50,000 miles long. If the moon did not keep the same face toward Earth , a moon space elevator would be much more difficult. Neil <br />Posted by nexium</DIV><br />Earth's moon is spiraling away from Earth, about one centimeter per year. If it was not tide locked = same face toward Earth,&nbsp;it would be spiraling toward Earth and cause serious problems in a few billion years.&nbsp;&nbsp; Neil

 

[qso1]

There is an advantage to having the opposite side always facing away from us. Good place for radio quiet SETI operations. But by the time we could do that, the far side of the moon may no longer be radio quiet. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[Saiph]

<p>neil, there are some problems with building a space elevator out to the earth-moon l1 lagrange point...</p><p>&nbsp;For instance, that lagrange point has an "orbital" period equal to the moons, ~28 days.&nbsp; The earth rotates...well, once per day.&nbsp; Any station you put there, isn't going to stay there if it's part of a space elevator, the earth's rotation will drag it away from that spot.</p><p>&nbsp;The only real place for the end statioin of a space elevator is at or near geosynchronous orbital height.&nbsp; That is, IIRC, the "low stress" position.&nbsp; Any higher, or lower, and the difference between the orbital period and earth's rotational period introduce extra strain.</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p align="center"><font color="#c0c0c0"><br /></font></p><p align="center"><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">----</font></em></font><font color="#666699">SaiphMOD@gmail.com </font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">-------------------</font></em></font></p><p><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">"This is my Timey Wimey Detector.  Goes "bing" when there's stuff.  It also fries eggs at 30 paces, wether you want it to or not actually.  I've learned to stay away from hens: It's not pretty when they blow" -- </font></em></font><font size="1" color="#999999">The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>