Translations:Cosmos/Moon/Orbit/2/en

Tidal locked

Tidal locked: NASA's explanation of why the side of the moon we see never changes

The reason why the moon doesn't appear to rotate (Assuming NASA's statement that the moon is an orbiting body), the Moon is "Tidally locked", which is where a moon possesses a "synchronous rotation", and takes just as long to rotate around its own axis as it does to revolve around its the earth. Hence the same side of the Moon always faces the Earth, although there is some variability because the Moon's orbit is not perfectly circular.