If there was a colony on the 'far side' of the moon, would they know that their world was orbiting the Earth?
453979
They might be able to obtain some paralax measurements of the stars and/or planets as they move around the Earth in their orbit, so they could deduce that they were orbiting something, though they might not know just what it was.
607814
No one else had flown around the moon. \n\nIts analogous to Lindy's flight across the atlantic. It may seem like they didn't accomplish much in hindsight, but consider the time -- no on from this planet had ever even approached another astronomic body. Much less, had anyone orbited it.\n\nThose of us who remember Apollo 8 (I think I was about 10) know the exhilaration of knowing the US had beat the pants off the Soviets. Star Trek was in its first season - good God, put it in perspective. We had 3 goddamn TV channels.
212220
Yes. If you are watching earth and moon from a distant place far far away in space, it would look like that. There is another thing- Moon and earth have a irregular movement due to each others gravity. They kind of wobble a tiny bit. The earth is moving, and the moon is revolving around the earth and following the earth.
131259
They aren't. My brother works at the Keck telescope in Hawai'i, which is run by NASA, and they looked at the moon recently to get some information about possible landing sites for the new missions. But there's not much call to look at the moon any more, since we can get much better pictures from sending spaceprobes there.
713735
I own a very fine acre of the light side of the moon. It's kinda left a bit from the middle. I could send you a map.
365770
i dont' know what causes the rotation of an orbiting planet, but the moon would definitely have gravity even if it didn't spin.  that dude was full of crap.  if anything, the spin would cause things to fly off.
8327
The European Space Agency's probe SMART-1 is currently in orbit around the moon -- so it is a moon of a moon.
842966
The tidal forces between the Earth and the Moon slowed the Moon's rotation until it became locked with its orbit around the Earth. The Moon therefore always keeps the same side of its surface facing the Earth. As the Moon orbits the Earth, the entire half facing the sun is illuminated, but the amount of this lighted half that we can see changes. Thus the Moon seems to change shape or phase. The far side of the Moon is lighted part of the time and dark part of the time as well; hence it is incorrect to refer to it as the "dark side of the Moon" (sorry, Pink Floyd).\n\nFor a picture of what the far side of the moon looks like check\nhttp://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/9810/farside_apollo16.jpg&imgrefurl=http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap981008.html&h=432&w=421&sz=41&hl=en&sig2=9NUu37Lghow0vp6Kt4utAw&start=3&tbnid=zr8LzmzCjXAnwM:&tbnh=126&tbnw=123&ei=y7hmRb_rDbXmwQGpmMHlAQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dfar%2Bside%2Bof%2Bthe%2Bmoon%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG
1023489
No.  But we see only the side that faces earth.\n\nHere's a good diagram that explains it better than I can...\n\n\nhttp://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/the_universe/uts/moon2.html
115838
The moon is very far away from the Earth.  It may be hard to imagine, but it is possible to see the moon from many different points on the earth at the same time.\n\nAlso realize that all of Earth experiences the same phase of the moon at the same time.  When we see a full moon, the people on the other side of the world are seeing the same full moon.
63557
The moon's orbit is elliptical, and the distance varies quite a bit (it varies from 225,745 mi. to 251,967 mi.)\n\nNow they actually know the distance to the moon to within a few inches. Apollo 11 astronauts left an array of corner mirrors on the moon. A corner mirror is three mirrors arranged like a corner of a box, all at right angles to each other. Such a mirror reflects light directly back toward the source of the light. Scientists shine a laser at the moon, and measure the time it takes to reflect back. They can measure this time to within a tiny fraction of a second. So they deduce the distance to the moon (at any given time) to within a few inches.
658680
We could build prisons on the moon..for all the worlds worst,the 1st world prison,,or maybe mars,,doubt thered be many prisoners years after that ..somehow..ppl would behave themselves
643921
Sean is right but it was manufactured that way as a perfect observation post from the aliens inside it observing us.\n\nthe moon is an artificial satellite and is hollow.
306692
of course. As long there is a living thing outside space, they r aliens. The possibility is low but the no. of planet is almost infinity so the possibility increases.
339938
No, as satellites and probes have been sent around the solar system, even behind the sun. There is no evidence of another planet on the other side of the sun. \n\nIn a hypothetical world where there is a planet on the other side of the sun, the gravity pull from the planet will distort the orbits of the closer planets i.e Mars and Venus. This distortion can be extrapolated by astronomists to determine the size and speed of the planet. However the existing 9 planets have all orbits accounted for.
77245
"The Moon also turns around, but its "day" is a whole month long.  Because it takes as long for the Moon to orbit the Earth as it does for the Moon to rotate once, the same face of the Moon is always pointed at the Earth.  Humans had not seen the "far side of the Moon" until we were able to send spacecraft behind it.  Remember, though, that the FAR side of the Moon is not always the DARK side of the Moon"
1727
Yes -- in fact you are living on one.  The earth and moon is quite unusual in being relatively the same size to earth other compared to other moons around other planets in the solar system.\n\nIn that respect you can consider the earth and moon as being twin planets.\n\nAs to how often this happens outside the solar system, you would probably have to wait a few years as we have only just started to be able to detect planets around nearby stars but currently have no real means of actually observing them.