this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2023
300 points (100.0% liked)

Science Memes

228 readers
67 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.


Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 10 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 26 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Aside from being a meme, the factoid isn't even true.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_locking#Moons

All twenty known moons in the Solar System that are large enough to be round are tidally locked with their primaries [planets]

[–] Embargo@lemm.ee 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It just says other moons. Not all other moons. Meaning the meme isn't untrue... Right?

[–] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 1 points 9 months ago

Pedantically speaking, yes. At least some small moons do freely rotate. But they are all very small and very far from their parent planet. If you were on the surface, you wouldn't see details.

Mars has two small moons close to it, but neither rotate relative to the surface. They're also really small and zip about super fast so they're cool for other reasons.

[–] oce@jlai.lu 1 points 9 months ago

I was skeptical thank you for the confirmation. Especially because the time it takes to lock depends on the relative size of the bodies. Our moon being exceptionally big relatively to our planet, if it has locked, then relatively smaller moons should have locked long before.
Btw, the locking is not perfect, there's a little oscillation of the moon called libration, so we can actually see about 59% of it over the years.

[–] ivanafterall@kbin.social 12 points 9 months ago

All of the other moons are severely autistic. Ours is balls-out confident. "Yeah, bitch, what. You blinked."

[–] uphillbothways@kbin.social 11 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

It's tidally locked to earth. Earth isn't tidally locked to it. Happens slowly due to gravity and differential mass. Relatively stable satellites end up tidally locked given the time. Pretty sure lack of water/liquids/atmosphere hastens the process.

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 6 points 9 months ago

The Moon .... shocked and stunned to see that life survived after that impact .... and to see the idiots that evolved after

[–] DessertStorms@kbin.social 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Can it ever happen to change?

Like an asteroid shower who throws a little momentum on this bastard?