Does our moon rotate and if it does why cant we ever see the othere side?
957460
The moon takes 27.3 days to orbit the Earth.  It also takes exactly the same amount of time to make one full rotation.  So the moon only shows the same side to Earth as it goes round.  This is called 'tidally locked'.
627332
First of all i would like to say that you are some kind of good thinker.. well for 4 years old, this kind of question may too complex for you. But i try to answer it for our knowledge.\n\nWell the moon is not just go down when the sun is up. The world is rotating itself, while the world is rotating around the sun. In the same time, the moon is rotating around the earth and the sun. When you are at any part of the earth expecially near to the equator, you will see some kind of nice organized pattern of when sun is out, the moon is gone, otherwise vise versa. \n\nWell, actually this is not the true. The moon is still there rotating around the earth in 24 hour time, but when the part of the earth where get alots of sun shine, the brighness of the moon will dissphere like you shine a touch in a good shinine day. The light from the touch will not seen as in the dark. But we cannot say that the ligh is gone. The light is still there but, due to the brigher light of the sun (higher cendela - unit for light), the reflaction light of moon is not seen.\n\nThere are some infomation that i can help you. It's good to think!!!
463189
The earth orbits the sun; the moon orbits the earth. The cycles of rotation are different meaning that the moon will orbit the earth many times every year. This means that it will very often be in a position to be seen during the day. The moon itself has no axial rotation so on earth we always see the same side of the moon.
212220
Yes. If you are watching earth and moon from a distant place far far away in space, it would look like that. There is another thing- Moon and earth have a irregular movement due to each others gravity. They kind of wobble a tiny bit. The earth is moving, and the moon is revolving around the earth and following the earth.
128040
Luna is in a state of synchronous rotation, meaning that it takes the same period to revolve around its axis and it takes to orbit the Earth.  It's been a while since I've taken highschool physics, but I believe tidal 'locking' is a factor here.  And yes, the Moon DOES spin.
599379
Yes, the moon spins (or rotates) once for each revolution (orbit).  This happens because the moon is "tidally locked" to the earth.  \n\nThe moon exerts tidal forces on the earth because it pulls harder on the part of the earth closer to the moon and less hard on the part of the earth father from the moon.  The result is tides--the ocean bulges up on the side close to the moon because of the harder pull and actually bulges up away from the moon on the far side because of the weaker pull.\n\nThe earth also exerts tidal fores on the moon.  The moon has no oceans (and never did), but the solid rock of the moon bulged.  The moon used to spin much faster, but bulging and rotating causes friction, which slowed the moon's rotation until it keeps one face toward the earth.  Thus, the bulge is fixed in one place on the moon and no more friction!
46600
To tell if the moon is waxing (getting bigger) or waning (getting smaller) look at which side of the moon is "filled-in," or visible. If the right side is visible, the moon is waxing (getting bigger.) If the left side is visible, the moon is waning (getting smaller.)\n\nO'course, if you live in the Southern Hemisphere this is the opposite (the left/right visibility factor is reversed.)
73091
Yes, the Moon does rotate around it's own axis.\n\nHowever, the reason we always see the same side of it is the fact that the Moon rotates about as fast as it makes one full lap around the Earth.  It takes about 27 days.  So, the Moon doesn't rotate as fast as Earth does(27 days compared to one day).
1066975
It would seem logical to say that at any one time we can see 50% of the Moon's face. If the Moon were flat, that would be correct, however we know the Moon is a sphere. And the spherical shape of the Moon hides the area close to the perimeter and we can, at any one time, see only 41% of the Moon's face.\n\nEven though the same side of the Moon's faces us, we do see a bit more than half of the Moon's face. Over time, because of librations, we can see up to 59% of the Moon's surface
214288
First, you must picture in your mind the 3 celestial bodies: sun, earth and moon. Picture the moon circling the earth: now it is between the earth and the sun, now it is at the other side of the earth, now it comes back again between earth and sun... As you know it takes about 4 weeks for the moon to make an entire circle around the earth.\nWhat happens when the moon is between us and the sun? well, it receives light from the sun on the face that is turned that way, so  we can't see it at the moment. That's why we can't see the new moon! It's there is the sky, but not lighted in the side facing us!\nThen 2 weeks later the moon is on the opposite side. The face that is facing the sun - and reflecting all that sunlight - is also facing the earth! So we see it fully - full moon.\nBut the path of the moon is not entirely on the same plane as us and the sun, there is a slight angle!!  Only sometimes it happens that the shadow of the earth catches the moon when it's full (and when it is perfectly aligned with the earth and the sun). THAT's your eclipse!!
212027
Actually the moon does spin. Please try out the following links.
602917
Yes.\nThe moon rotates at the same speed as it revolves. So, by the time it covers some distance in revolution, it has moved about the same in rotation. Easy to understand with a diagram.
30684
Yes - the moon is far away, and the earth spins around it's own axis, creating day and night time. The moon would move a little 1/56 of phase shift during the half day it would take for the other half of earth to see the moon, but it's not noticeable.
167554
It is highly unlikly that the earth will ever change the direction of rotation. A strong outside force must be present. But the rotation of the earth is slowing down over time due to the pull from the moon. dont worry if anything does change you will not be here to see it.
892131
The moon is "tidally locked" with the earth.\n\nThis means that as it goes around the Earth in its orbit it spins just slowly enough so that one side is always facing the Earth, and one side cannot be seen from the Earth.\n\nAs the moon goes around the Earth, each part gets daylight and darkness just like days on the Earth - but the "day" on the moon is nearly a month long - exactly the same as its "year".\n\nImagine two ice skaters facing each other and holding (both) hands. As you swing your partner around you, you can see her face, but not her back.\n\nNow imagine a spotlight shining on you from one side of the rink. If your partner is facing the spotlight her face is lit up, and if she is facing away from the light all you see is her silhouette. When she's in-between, you see part of her face lit up. This is similar to what causes the phases of the moon.\n\nNotice that no part of her is always dark or always light - but her face is always towards you, and her back is always hidden from you. She has a near side and a far side. But not really a dark side or light side. \n\nWhen people say "dark side of the moon" they generally mean the far side of the moon (which is not always dark).
21430
The theories presented so far have been pretty much debunked. The following link gives an elaborate explanation of this illusion. But even it fails to explain why we don't see this illusion every time the moon rises. It does not always appear larger at moonrise than when it is higher in the sky. Also, the moon may appear to be different sizes on different nights even in the same location. I'm still looking for a plausable explanation. \n\nhttp://facstaff.uww.edu/mccreadd/
61467
The moon spins about an axis. The axis  is almost perpendicular to the plane of the moons orbit around the earth. The period of spin (time to complete one rotation about the spin axis) is equal to the period of one revolution around the earth.\n  The result is we see one side of the moon.\nFor many people this answer is not suffice to understand.\nImagine a cubical building in a plain ground. The four vertical walls are marked A,B,C,D.  Imagine the building to be the moon and we are standing infront of the wall marked A. Let us go round the building to see the other walls in the order of ABCD. When we have finished quarter round we can have the full view of the wall B. But imagine  that the building rotates itself such that when we finished quarter round it also has rotated quarter round about itself. We will see only the wall A. If the things continue like this we can never see the other walls.When we complete one round the building completes one round so always we see only the wall A.\n Due to librations actually we can see 59% of the moon instead of 50%