South Africa: The Moon is an egg (well, sort of)Life in the Goldilocks Zone – what makes our Moon so strange and miraculous?

What is patently obvious often dulls the need to ask why it is so, like why we only ever see half a moon, whatever its phase. But just why it spins exactly once every earth day with respect to the Sun is worthy of question. 

We know it causes the oceans to bulge, forcing changes in sea level and always offers us half its face. English poet Stevie Tate sketches the issue rather well:

The jealous moon so tries to steal
Our oceans from their sleep
In cohorts with the Sun
In tides, the…