Man in the Moon then cooled, becoming smooth, basalt rock. The near side of the Moon, containing these maria that make up the man, is always facing Earth. This is due to a tidal locking or synchronous orbit. Thought to have occurred because of the gravitational forces partially caused by the Moon's oblong shape, its rotation has slowed to the point where it rotates exactly once on each trip around the Earth. This causes the near side of the Moon to always turn its face toward Earth. Man in the Moon The Man in the Moon refers to any of several pareidolic images of
Geostationary ring Geostationary ring The geostationary ring is a volume segment around the geostationary orbit defined by variations in altitude and declination that can occur for uncontrolled objects left in the geostationary orbit. The geostationary orbit is subject to orbit perturbations caused by anomalies in the gravitational field of the Earth, by the gravitational effects of Sun and Moon, and by solar radiation pressure. A precessional motion of the orbit plane is caused by the oblatedness of the Earth (formula_1), and the gravitational effects of Sun and Moon. This motion has a period of about 53 years. The two parameters describing the