Astronomy Picture of the Day - Rotating Moon from LRO

NASA ^ | 2 Jun, 2024 | Video Credit: NASA, LRO, Arizona State U.

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: No one, presently, sees the Moon rotate like this. That's because the Earth's moon is tidally locked to the Earth, showing us only one side. Given modern digital technology, however, combined with many detailed images returned by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a high resolution virtual Moon rotation movie has been composed. The featured time-lapse video starts with the standard Earth view of the Moon. Quickly, though, Mare Orientale, a large crater with a dark center that is difficult to see from the Earth, rotates into view just below the equator. From an entire lunar month condensed into 24 seconds, the video clearly shows that the Earth side of the Moon contains an abundance of dark lunar maria, while the lunar far side is dominated by bright lunar highlands. Currently, over 32 new missions to the Moon are under active development from multiple countries and companies, including NASA's Artemis program which aims to land people on the Moon again within the next few years.

[MtnClimber]

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Today's image is a video at the source link

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list

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Today's image is a video at the source link

[telescope115]

NICE!

[null and void]

From an entire lunar month condensed into 24 seconds

IOW, it's as if the Moon WASN'T rotating...

[thesligoduffyflynns]

Sheila Jackson gave a mighty fine speech/ s wwhen we had the eclipse.

so poorly versed it was was a total hoot , i couldnt sroflmao

[SunkenCiv]

[snip] the Earth’s moon is tidally locked to the Earth, showing us only one side. [/snip]

Minor quibble: the phenomenon involved is known as the tidal transfer of momentum. Bodies in prograde motion basically push away from the parent body (and the parent body does the same thing to its satellites) as they lose rotational momentum as a consequence.

The Moon has only about 1 percent the mass of the Earth, so it lost its rotational momentum some time ago. The Earth’s rotation has likewise slowed. Both tidal transfers *could* someday lead to the Earth’s loss of the Moon. If it does, it’ll be a bad crazy day, but of course, it’s far in the future.

ancient sidebar:
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1234919/posts

[SunkenCiv]

related to the topic at hand:

https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3691563/posts?page=3#3

[SunkenCiv]

No one, presently, sees the Moon rotate like this. That's because the Earth's moon is tidally locked to the Earth, showing us only one side. Given modern digital technology, however, combined with many detailed images returned by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a high resolution virtual Moon rotation movie has now been composed. The above time-lapse video starts with the standard Earth view of the Moon. Quickly, though, Mare Orientale, a large crater with a dark center that is difficult to see from the Earth, rotates into view just below the equator. From an entire lunar month condensed into 24 seconds, the video clearly shows that the Earth side of the Moon contains an abundance of dark lunar maria, while the lunar far side is dominated by bright lunar highlands. Currently, over 20 new missions to the Moon are under active development from four different countries, most of which have expected launch dates either this year or next.

Credit: NASA, Arizona State U., NASA

Rotating Moon from LRO | 0:24
APOD Videos | 30.2K subscribers | 1,756,387 views | September 11, 2013