Re: moon's synchronism

[Leigh Palmer <palmer@sfu.ca>]

Jim Green writes:

> What resulted was a yam shaped Moon with its long axis pointed generally
> toward the Earth.  The Moon is oscillating slightly in this orientation -- I
> am not sure why -- whether it is just not yet damped out or if it is
> continually perturbed - ther are opinions each way.

Yes, perhaps there are, but there is a perfectly obvious physical
reason. The Moon's orbit is not circular. Tidal dissipation also
circularizes orbits. When the orbit has been circularized there
will be no more of this dissipative oscillation. That won't happen
soon, and it won't happen at all in a Sun-Earth-Moon system.

Leigh