<p>The far side of the Moon feels less pull from the Earth than the near side. The Moon travels along the path of its center of mass. This means the mass further feels less gravitational pull from the Earth plus it is pulled outwards by centrifugal force (because it is going &quot;too fast&quot; for an orbit at its distance).  The mass closer to the Earth feels a greater gravitation force. Plus it is going too slow for a closer orbit.</p>
<p>The result is the Moon is pulled out of round into an oblate spheroid. When it was spinning, this warping and pulling of the rock or flow of fluid caused heat and as the rotation energy was converted to heat the rotation slowed. Basically it &quot;ground to a halt&quot;. The minimum energy configuration is the rotationally locked situation.</p>
<p>Guessing now, I would think it is permanently a bit lopsided with mass concentrated a little on the Earth side. There are orbital gravity surveys that would show this. In fact if memory serves, one of Robert Forward's rotating gravity gradiometers was flown on a satellite that orbited the Moon.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-02T20:50:13.347Z
2022-09-02T20:50:13.347Z
C. Towne Springer
<p>Why the moon is tidally locked with the earth? What is the reason for the tidal locking of the moon with the earth? What causes tidal locking?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-01T08:09:18.810Z
Have you read through a resource like wikipeida? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_locking
James K
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-02T07:28:39.927Z
-1, this is literally a case of googling the first sentence of the question and reading any of the articles on the first page.
user438383
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-02T19:08:21.133Z
Consider the time involved since formation, how much rotation it would have to lose every day for 4.5 billion years  and the fact it was molten light rock exploded off from our planet chaotically rather than a captured body.
bandybabboon
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-03T02:04:37.437Z
I’m voting to close this question because there is no effort done by OP whatsoever.
Nilay Ghosh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-03T06:43:23.847Z
I’m voting to close this question because there's no evidence that OP has done any research.
Jim421616
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-03T11:42:59.780Z
I'd vote to close, but I'd like to do it as a duplicate.  Surprisingly I can't find one that matches this question.  Agree that it is still a case the Google or Wikipedia  provides the answer directly.
GrapefruitIsAwesome
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-04T19:00:04.540Z
@GrapefruitIsAwesome which is actually a reason why the question should not be closed! In Stack Exchange we *down vote* for lack of research but close for proper close reasons. We don't "punish" the OP and then block answers for lack of research. Hover a cursor over the up and down vote arrows and one sees that this is the way to provide voting feedback. Closing, thereby blocking answers from being written is shortsighted and unproductive.
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-04T19:04:44.677Z
@Jim421616 ditto
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-04T19:04:54.657Z
@NilayGhosh ditto
uhoh
<the-moon><tidal-locking>
Why is the moon tidally locked with the earth?
apk
# Why is the moon tidally locked with the earth?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-09-01)

Why the moon is tidally locked with the earth? What is the reason for the tidal locking of the moon with the earth? What causes tidal locking?

**Tags:** the-moon, tidal-locking

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Have you read through a resource like wikipeida? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_locking  
> **username_2**: -1, this is literally a case of googling the first sentence of the question and reading any of the articles on the first page.  
> **username_3**: Consider the time involved since formation, how much rotation it would have to lose every day for 4.5 billion years  and the fact it was molten light rock exploded off from our planet chaotically rather than a captured body.  
> **username_4**: I’m voting to close this question because there is no effort done by OP whatsoever.  
> **username_5**: I’m voting to close this question because there's no evidence that OP has done any research.  
> **username_6**: I'd vote to close, but I'd like to do it as a duplicate.  Surprisingly I can't find one that matches this question.  Agree that it is still a case the Google or Wikipedia  provides the answer directly.  
> **username_7**: @username_6 which is actually a reason why the question should not be closed! In Stack Exchange we *down vote* for lack of research but close for proper close reasons. We don't "punish" the OP and then block answers for lack of research. Hover a cursor over the up and down vote arrows and one sees that this is the way to provide voting feedback. Closing, thereby blocking answers from being written is shortsighted and unproductive.  
> **username_7**: @username_5 ditto  
> **username_7**: @username_4 ditto  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_8 on 2022-09-02. Score: 0

The far side of the Moon feels less pull from the Earth than the near side. The Moon travels along the path of its center of mass. This means the mass further feels less gravitational pull from the Earth plus it is pulled outwards by centrifugal force (because it is going "too fast" for an orbit at its distance). The mass closer to the Earth feels a greater gravitation force. Plus it is going too slow for a closer orbit.

The result is the Moon is pulled out of round into an oblate spheroid. When it was spinning, this warping and pulling of the rock or flow of fluid caused heat and as the rotation energy was converted to heat the rotation slowed. Basically it "ground to a halt". The minimum energy configuration is the rotationally locked situation.

Guessing now, I would think it is permanently a bit lopsided with mass concentrated a little on the Earth side. There are orbital gravity surveys that would show this. In fact if memory serves, one of Robert Forward's rotating gravity gradiometers was flown on a satellite that orbited the Moon.


---

