The Moon keeps roughly the same face towards us, but speed up a month and it seems to wobble.

Its tilted, oval orbit lets us see it from slightly different angles. The effect is called libration.

Even a familiar face has more to show.

The Moon seems to wobble as it orbits

NASA data visualization compresses about a month of lunar phases and apparent wobble into 24 seconds

NASA data visualization compresses about a month of lunar phases and apparent wobble into 24 seconds — NASA Scientific Visualization Studio / Ernie Wright; LRO data

NASA diagram of the Moon’s tilted orbital plane around Earth; Earth and Moon sizes are exaggerated

NASA diagram of the Moon’s tilted orbital plane around Earth; Earth and Moon sizes are exaggerated — NASA Scientific Visualization Studio / Ernie Wright

The Moon seems to wobble as it orbits

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