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Article #6869Re: Lunar Rotation
From: John Roberts
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 05:22
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 05:22
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-From: lwall@netlabs.com (Larry Wall) -Subject: Re: Lunar Rotation (was: Earth's rotation rate...) -Date: 21 Jan 93 20:15:20 GMT -Organization: NetLabs, Inc. -In article <C16EL7.Cqw@brunel.ac.uk> mt90dac@brunel.ac.uk (Del Cotter) writes: -: BTW, I heard that the Moon is actually *bistable*. Aren't we lucky we -: got the pretty face? -If we get bored we could always turn the Moon the other way 'round... The center of mass of the moon is displaced from the geometric center by 2-3 km. That being the case, it seems unlikely that it's bistable. Incidentally, this displacement provides evidence that the moon's tidal lock was achieved while it was still molten. (It's thought that the chief feature of the asymmetry is a much thicker crust on the far side. This would also account for the greater incidence of mascons on the near side.) John Roberts roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!sdd.hp.com!saimiri.primate.wisc.edu!usenet.coe.montana.edu!ogicse!das-news.harvard.edu!cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!crabapple.srv.cs.cmu.edu!roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov From: roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov (John Roberts) Newsgroups: sci.space Subject: Re: Lunar Rotation Message-ID: <C18ppu.C2H.1@cs.cmu.edu> Date: 22 Jan 93 05:22:52 GMT Article-I.D.: cs.C18ppu.C2H.1 Sender: news+@cs.cmu.edu Distribution: sci Organization: National Institute of Standards and Technology formerly National Bureau of Standards Lines: 22 Approved: bboard-news_gateway X-Added: Forwarded by Space Digest Original-Sender: isu@VACATION.VENARI.CS.CMU.EDU