A model of the Moon’s tidal evolution, starting from the fast-spinning, high-obliquity Earth that would be expected after a giant impact, reveals that solar perturbations on the Moon’s orbit ...

Interestingly, the researchers found that the moon’s overall gravity field is no longer aligned with the topography, as it would have been when the tidal bulges were frozen into the moon’s shape. The ...

The gravitational tidal forces the moon and Earth exerted on each other braked their rotations, resulting in the moon always showing the same face to Earth, a situation known as tidal lock.

Once that happened, the moon’s tidal bulge aligned with the direction to Earth, and the slowing stopped. In the lingo of astronomy, the moon became “tidally locked.” This is why the moon ...

If you buy through a BGR link, we may earn an affiliate commission, helping support our expert product labs. The Moon dominates the night sky and, as the closest large body to Earth, we get to see ...

The next research will work to understand how tidal heating could reset the age of the moon. They noted that lunar samples from China’s Chang’e 6 mission will help to provide invaluable data ...

Tidal Forces. The moon holds the primary influence over Earth’s tides due to its proximity, but it’s not the only factor. The sun, with a mass about 27 million times that of the Moon, ...

Recent research challenges long-standing views by suggesting that tidal forces reshaped the Moon’s surface, effectively ...

Key Measurement: Precise distances to estimate lunar core oblateness, elastic tides, lunar tidal dissipation, Core/Mantle boundary dissipation, free physical librations, lunar cartography, and ...

The next research will work to understand how tidal heating could reset the age of the moon. They noted that lunar samples ...