44. Does the Moon spin? How fast? (A K2S Question)
From The Space Library
The Moon spins, or rotates 360° on its axis, in the same amount of time that it revolves 360° around the Earth (a sidereal month). This is how it keeps the same side to the Earth all the time, and is known as a 1:1 spin-orbit resonance. Knowing that a sidereal month is 27.321661 days and it goes through 360°, we find that it spins 13.1764° per day around its axis. This is also how far it travels across the sky during a day.
Answer provided by Thomas Matula, Ph.D. & Kenneth J. Murphy
Question and Answer extracted from the book Kids to Space - by Lonnie Schorer
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