Usuari:Albert SN/proves/Rotació sincrona
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Tidal locking (also called gravitational locking or captured rotation) occurs when the gravitational gradient makes one side of an astronomical body always face another, an effect known as synchronous rotation. For example, the same side of the Moon always faces the Earth. A tidally locked body takes just as long to rotate around its own axis as it does to revolve around its partner. This causes one hemisphere constantly to face the partner body. Usually, only the satellite is tidally locked to the larger body. However, if the mass difference between the two bodies and their distance is small, each may be tidally locked to the other; this is the case for Pluto and Charon. This effect is employed to stabilize some artificial satellites.