Newbie question yet again haha

[Dean bailey]

Why as the moon got so many craters? Where have the creators come from? Why do we never see the other side of the moon? Sorry about the mad questions some might find stupid but it just thoughts I have always thought about,.

Thanks for reading guys.

[Pete Presland]

The craters are formed by meteors and other space debris crashing into the surface. The Moon doesn't have an atmosphere like Earth, so most meteors get burnt up in the atmosphere on Earth. The Earth is also a "live" (wind,rain,earthquakes,ect...) planet constantly changing over thousands/millions of years which hides a lot of meteor strikes from the past, some are still visible from space though.

[brantuk]

The moon spins at the same rate as Earth but it's center of gravity is close to Earths center. Gravity on both moon and Earth keeps the same face drawn towards us, it's called "synchronous rotation" and it's what causes the Earths tides, and a slight bulge on the moon. The moon is also slowly moving away from Earth at a rate of around 4 cm per year because it's accelerating through it's elliptical orbit round the Earth. Hth

[Pig]

Look up "barrycentre" common centre of mass and synchronous rotation. The Moon is in a captured orbit state with the Earth, over time the Earths pull on the Moon has stopped any difference in rotation thus we see always see the same area of the Moon.

We do see slightly more than half of the Moon throughout the whole phase totalling around 59%, look up libration for a full explanation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82p-DYgGFjI

[Alfian]

Have a look at the "Late Heavy Bombardment" on Wiki'. Interesting stuff.

[Pig]

This may also help answer your question

[happy-kat]

There is an excellent free Moons course on open university at future learn

[Physopto]

This may also help answer your question

timedpic31.jpg

Now that's what I call a crane !

But more importantly which of the astronauts fitted the hook ?

NASA kept that one quiet.

Derek