๐ Moon Phases & Eclipses
๐ The 8 Moon Phases:
New Moon
Waxing Crescent
First Quarter
Waxing Gibbous
Full Moon
Waning Gibbous
Third Quarter
Waning Crescent
The Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite โ a large rocky ball that orbits our planet every 27.3 days. It is about 384,400 kilometres away, roughly 30 Earths lined up in a row!
โก Fun Fact:The Moon has no atmosphere, no wind, and no weather. Footprints left by Apollo astronauts in 1969 are still there today!
๐ก Tip:Tidal locking โ Why do we always see the same side of the Moon? Over billions of years, Earth's gravity slowed the Moon's spin until it takes exactly as long to rotate as it does to orbit Earth. We call this tidal locking.
The Moon goes through 8 phases as it orbits Earth. We see different amounts of the sunlit side depending on where the Moon is in its orbit. The cycle takes about 29.5 days โ a lunar month.
The 8 Moon Phases:
- โข๐ New Moon โ Moon is between Earth and Sun; we see the dark side
- โข๐ Waxing Crescent โ a small sliver of light grows on the right
- โข๐ First Quarter โ right half is lit
- โข๐ Waxing Gibbous โ most of the Moon is lit
- โข๐ Full Moon โ the entire face is lit up
- โข๐ Waning Gibbous โ starts to shrink from the right
- โข๐ Third Quarter โ left half is lit
- โข๐ Waning Crescent โ back to a thin sliver before New Moon
The Moon's gravity pulls on Earth's oceans, creating tides. When the Moon is overhead, ocean water bulges toward it โ that is high tide. The other side of Earth also bulges outward, giving us two high tides and two low tides every day.
โก Fun Fact:On 20 July 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the Moon. Neil Armstrong said: 'That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.'