Reason for same side of the Moon facing Earth

 Tidal Locking or Same side of the Moon facing Earth    

You’ve only ever seen half of the Moon in the sky. Why does the same side of the Moon always face Earth? This is called tidal locking, but what is the underlying mechanism for this? Earth’s Moon rotates, but it takes precisely as long for the Moon to spin on its axis as it does to complete its monthly orbit around Earth. As a result, the Moon never turns its back to us. This phenomenon, called “synchronous tidal locking,” sounds like a weird coincidence, but it’s actually quite common. All the solar system’s large moons are tidally locked with their planets. The bigger moons synchronize early in their existence, within hundreds of thousands of orbits. Some binary stars are tidally locked to one another, and evidence is building that many planets beyond our solar system are tidally locked with their stars. Earth's gravity pulling on the Moon's tidal bulges created a force called torque, which slowed the Moon's rotation over time. Over time, Earth’s gravity has reduced the Moon’s rotational rate until our satellite rotates on its axis at the same rate it revolves around Earth. 

When the Moon first formed, it was a sea of molten lava. The immense gravity of Earth stretched this molten sea, raising tides on both the near and far sides. Each time that the Moon completes a turn, it also orbits the Earth once, keeping its far side perpetually hidden. Sizes and distances are not to scale. Tidal locking is common, but its dynamics are complex. In the Moon’s case, it started at birth. Earth’s Moon is thought to have formed when a massive object collided with Earth early in its history, splattering some of our planet into space. The hot, molten object which coalesced from the ejected material would have been spinning wildly, with its shape changing as it was pulled at by Earth’s gravity. Earth’s gravitational pull distorts the Moon into a slight football shape even today, but this distortion would have been much more dramatic when the Moon was both closer to Earth and less solid.

But the Moon was spinning, and that rotation carried the tides away from a direct line pointing toward Earth. So, from Earth’s perspective, there was an extra lump of material sitting slightly on either side of a line connecting the centre of Earth with the centre of the Moon. The gravity of Earth tugged on these lumps, trying to bring them back into alignment (i.e., so that the nearer bulge pointed directly at Earth, rather than slightly away). This produced torque, or an additional rotational force, which slowed down the Moon’s rotation. At first this tugging wasn’t successful because the Moon had more than enough rotational energy to overcome the torque from Earth’s pull and keep spinning. But over time, Earth slowly won and the Moon’s rotation slowed down. The part of the Moon which was pulled toward Earth would have shifted as the Moon spun, but always at a delay, since it takes time for so much material to rise and then later fall. This means the Moon’s bulge was always a little out of alignment with Earth, yet always being pulled toward alignment by gravity. As the Moon bent and fluxed in this tug of war, energy was released in the form of heat. As the energy dissipated, the Moon’s rotation slowed until a single spin on its axis took the same amount of time as one trip around Earth. In this state, the bulge on the Moon was no longer shifting relative to the Earth, therefore no more energy needed to be dissipated by this particular process, and the spin rate stopped changing.

This process continued for millions of years until the lumps, the tides raised by Earth’s gravity, sat permanently on a direct line facing Earth. To achieve this, the rotation of the Moon had to synchronize with its orbit, so that it always presents the same face to Earth. At the same time as energy was being burned off within the Moon and slowing its rotation, energy was being added to the Moon’s orbit by similar tidal forces, causing the Moon to slowly drift away from Earth. This story doesn’t end in the past. The same process is happening now. The Moon continues to move away from Earth at a rate of about an inch-and-a-half (4 cm)/year, its drift slowing as it goes. The energy propelling it away comes primarily from Earth’s oceans, which both bulge out in response to the Moon’s gravity and exert a gravitational pull of their own on the Moon. Earth’s bulging oceans don’t exactly match up with the position of the Moon, they’re always a little out of sync because it takes time for all that water to shift and pile up. This interaction does two things: it creates friction which slows Earth’s own rotation, and creates forces which change the Moon’s orbital speed, causing it to fall farther away into space. Other, weaker forces, related to such factors as the Moon’s tilt, its elliptical orbit, Earth’s deep interior, the influence of the Sun, and more, also affect the Moon’s motion, but these cause only very subtle changes, and sizes and distances are not to scale.

It wasn’t until 07 Oct, 1959, that the Soviet Luna 3 spacecraft gave humanity its first-ever look at the farside of the Moon. About 50 billion years from now, if the Moon and Earth could somehow avoid the eventual death of the Sun, the Moon would be so far away, and its orbit so large, that Earth would also tidally lock to the Moon. Only the population of one lucky half of our world would ever see the Moon. In our own solar system, Pluto and its moon Charon (grey) have already become tidally locked to one another, just as Earth and the Moon would someday sync up if given enough time. Scientists think that Charon’s large size and mass may be keeping Pluto’s smaller moons from also syncing up. Humanity may never get to witness that from Earth, but perhaps our relocated descendents will someday gaze up at the tidally locked Moon of another planet in the universe. 

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400 million tons of CO₂ reduced in about 40 years

 A mega project by China to “drink” the atmosphere, 400 million-ton of CO2 reduced 

Within 40 years, China has made a concerted effort to preserve its natural ecosystems. It was back in 1980 when China put forth large afforestation campaigns, which included the Three-North Shelter Forest Program among other prominent programs. With such lucrative efforts in place, China has produced many green carbon-absorbing forests. With a reduction of 400 million tons of CO₂ in 40 years, a reduction of about 16 billion tons of CO₂ will result in the next four decades. The reason China is engaging in afforestation efforts is to reverse the ecological damage and stabilize the carbon cycle. At the centre of these reforestation projects lies improved soil quality, preserved biodiversity and the fight against desertification. China is proving that while engaging in efforts to prevent climate change, the country can reap economic and ecological benefits as well.  With forests absorbing large quantities of CO₂, China’s technological initiatives have come to the fore. It seems like China tried for 40 years and has finally succeeded in what seems like the biggest transformation in history. In just 40 years, the nation has transformed from being the world’s largest emitter to a core player in the carbon management field. The main figure to note is the 400 million tons of CO₂ removed per year, which has resulted from a combination of afforestation techniques, ecological engineering and emerging biotechnologies. 

China plans to “drink” in the atmosphere. While China will not literally drink the atmosphere, China is keen on addressing one of the gravest atmospheric problems: carbon dioxide (CO₂). Over the last 40 years, China has been involved in numerous ecological engineering and afforestation projects. China is not just stopping with the reduction of 400 million tons of CO₂ under its belt, but the country seeks to transform the CO₂ into vital food resources to address the issue of food insecurity as well. China has made massive strides in the journey towards carbon recovery. Part of the journey included national forest programs, desertification control, watershed restoration and urban greening, which enabled the country to build the world’s greatest artificial carbon sinks. The 400 million tons of CO₂ annually signifies the average amount of CO₂ that has been absorbed by China’s expanding forests and engineered ecosystems over the past 40 years. Far from symbolic, this “atmospheric harvest” has caused the global carbon gap to narrow at a time when climate pressure continued to accelerate. Four decades of investing have resulted in the ability to convert captured CO₂ into essential resources at a rather large scale. The fact that China remained headstrong in its removal capacity set the foundation for an era where the captured carbon was seen as merely a climate burden. Thereafter, Chinese scientists decided to look at the captured carbon as more of a resource, paving the way for an entirely new technological frontier.

China has utilized a strategy whereby climate change and food insecurity can be addressed. In the process, China is also planting billions of trees so as to engineer microbes responsible for turning CO₂ into a food source. The project has yielded noteworthy results and is combining natural ecosystems with synthetic biology. This, however, is not the only initiative which China is undertaking. China is also turning 12 trillion litres of water into energy in a project. As per current research by the Xi’an Jiaotong University and the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, carbon can be reused. With a dual-reactor system, one anaerobic, one aerobic, scientists were able to demonstrate an efficient way of transforming CO₂ and electricity into high-quality single-cell protein (SCP). The first reactor works to convert CO₂ into acetate through microbial electrosynthesis. The second reactor relies on aerobic bacteria, specifically from the Alcaligenes genus, to transform this acetate into protein-rich biomass.

The results have shown:-

74% protein concentration (which is more protein than you would get from fish and soy)

17.4 g/L dry cell weight yield

Food suitable for animal feed and human consumption

Food rich in amino acids

With this system, high waste output is bypassed completely. Food generation is embedded directly into the carbon cycle, using atmospheric CO₂ as the core input.

Chinese scientists are looking at converting CO₂ into a high-protein food with advanced biotechnology. CO₂ and electricity will be converted into a single-cell protein (SCP). The system will convert CO₂ into acetate as per the anaerobic microbial electrosynthesis phase. In the second phase called aerobic bacteria the genus alcaligenes will consume this acetate to produce SCP. After both phases, protein-rich biomass with a 74% protein yield will result. The protein produced is only suitable for animal feed but is also showing promising results in terms of being safe for human consumption. The food produced will be a plant-based alternative but a strong source of protein. China is in this manner drinking the atmosphere by turning a harmful substance like CO₂ into a nutritious food source and in the process the country is addressing issues of food insecurity and climate change. China’s progress in carbon transformation is noted, but it extends beyond what we know. Astronauts on the Tiangong space station looked at artificial photosynthesis to convert CO₂ and water into oxygen and organic compounds. For this, astronauts used plant-like chemical pathways to manufacture a closed-loop life-support system, which has been essential for Martian missions and long lunar missions. The message is clear: China is operationalizing carbon and seeing it not as a form of waste, but as a material for renewal.

The system reassesses how high-protein food can be produced. It is clear that the core premise of the system can be employed in other systems as well. While this may not unlock unlimited energy like China’s other projects can, it is a key strategy towards China becoming the global leader in sustainability efforts. China has triggered global alarm with 94.5 GW of new capacity under construction, and it is clear that, alongside sustainability efforts, the country is interested in recycling all of its captured CO₂. The 400-million-ton legacy is the core foundation upon which China seems to be building a carbon-based resource economy. When combining atmospheric management with scientific research in CO₂-to-protein conversion and space-grade artificial photosynthesis, the country is giving carbon capture a whole new meaning.

A circular carbon economy is being created where CO₂ is not seen as toxic waste, but a  form of feedstock. With fewer resources, minimal waste and no need for balancing chemicals, China’s identified process is beneficial and sustainable. What had once been seen as a form of pollution is now raw material which can be used to create food, oxygen and industrial systems of the future. China may set the tone on how societies can turn the battle against emissions into a valuable resource. However, the country is not stopping with just reducing emissions. The nation is also vested in clean energy generation, and in the pipeline is China’s floating solar revolution, which will be the world’s biggest power network. In matters concerning climate change, what may seem as little steps, China has demonstrated this by trying for more than four decades and finally yielding results.

Muhammad (Peace be upon him) Names