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nottheengineer ,

This explains it very well: moon.nasa.gov/moon-in-motion/…/tidal-locking/

Hypersapien OP ,

So why doesn’t the moon rotate around the axis that’s on the line that points from the Earth to the moon? The “Z” axis as we look into the sky?

Or does it?

nottheengineer ,

Try recreating that spin with a fidget spinner and slowly turn it around like the moon turns to face earth. You’ll find that it wants to turn in a way where it spins around the same axis it’s orbiting.

Since the moon has no hand preventing it from doing that, it aligns its spin with the orbit, so the forces described in the article bring that rotation to a halt.

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