Dsotm....
 

Sorry Floyd...this ain't about you...

Why are there so many craters on the side facing us.....'cause we REALLY suck. Seems as if most would be on the DSOTM?

I haven't given this much thought....;)

It's not always the same side of the moon.

Actually it is. The moon doesn’t rotate around its own axis. We’re always looking at the same hemisphere of the moon. It just wiggles in latitude and longitude over the over the course of its orbit.


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Let's get some terms ironed out.
Dark side of the moon is whatever side is not being illuminated by the sun's rays. Over the course of the lunar month, both sides get light.
Far side of the moon is the side which is not visible from Earth. As stated above, it does get an equal amount of light.

Best
Les

I told ya I hadn't given this much thought ;).

FSOTM then...why doesn't it have most of the craters?

It does. And it has fresher craters. The Earth side has craters because the moon doesn't have weather, so the craters do not go away. Ever.

The moon does rotate. But it must have a mass imbalance. The heavier side is facing the Earth. This is a lower potential energy state.

That 'splains it....I was under the impression that the moon did not rotate at all with the earth side always a constant. I am NOT a rocket man ;)

The theory I heard was the moon was struck by a really big asteroid or object, and it melted much of the far side and erased a lot of older craters, and made the moon lopsided. The earth's gravity locked one side into constant view of the earth.

The moon rotates once per orbit... it's 'year' and 'day' are the same length, so one side faces Earth all times.

The far side is much more heavily cratered, because it's exposed to the brunt of the material falling into the center of the solar system. It's the "wall" exposed to various asteroids/meteroids/comets/debris out there. The near side of partially protected by the Earth's gravity, which does a good job of sweeping that material away.

A current theory is that Earth was hit by a large body (Theia)... maybe a wayward 'planet' perhaps as large as Mars.
A chunk broke off, becoming the moon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant-impact_hypothesis

Earth's moon is very, very unique... it is huge relative to the planet is circles.

Our moon is gradually moving farther and farther away from earth.

Yes it does.
If it didn't rotate we would see the both sides.
The moon orbits the Earth once every 27.322 days. It also takes approximately 27 days for the moon to rotate once on its axis. To observers on earth the moon does not seem to be rotating because it rotates at the perfect speed to show us the same side all the time.

O.k., sorry guys, but the old engineer geek in me feels compelled to clear up some terminology for you. A body "rotates" about an external axis - the moon "rotates" around the earth. A body "revolves" around it's own internal axis - the earth revolves once per day around its own axis.

I guess this brings out the shooting geek in me as well - there are no "rotaters", only "revolvers".

As you were... SmileWavy

That's what happens when ya give Higgins whiskey on New Years eve.....high and to the left :).

I'm outta here before Shaun shows up...

Ya gotta admit that's a pretty good shot tho, given the distance.
But he didn't have to account for windage or drop, not sure about that whole Coriolis thing.

Hugo was a great movie.

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Jeff, I think you have those two backwards.
Or perhaps they have simply made half a revolution around the axis of correctness.