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The Question
(Submitted February 18, 1998)
The Earth's moon orbits the earth with one side always facing the Earth.
Do other moons orbit their respective planets in the same manner?
The Answer
Most of the satellites in the solar system rotate synchronously like our
moon (see
http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/luna.html).
An example of one that doesn't is Saturn's moon Hyperion. Its rotation is
actually chaotic. You can find out more about it at
http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/hyperion.html
Also,
http://www.solarviews.com/eng/data1.htm#orb ,
which is a table of
orbital and rotation periods, among other things.
Damian Audley and John Cannizzo
for Ask an Astrophysicist
Questions on this topic are no longer responded to by the "Ask an Astrophysicist" service. See http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/ask_an_astronomer.html
for help on other astronomy Q&A services.
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