Did You Know: Space – Why does the moon change its shape?
The moon can be seen in the night sky from almost anywhere on Earth.
Sometimes it is a bright, round circle, and other times it is a crescent shape. The moon itself isn’t really changing, it just looks different from Earth. This is because we see different amounts of the sunlit side of the moon as it orbits Earth.
1. New moon
In this phase, we cannot see the moon from Earth because its lit face is directly toward the sun.
2. Waxing crescent
As the moon moves away from the sun, we see sunlight reflected off a tiny part of it. We see a sliver, or crescent.
3. First quarter
The moon has now traveled a quarter of its orbit. We can see about half of it.
4. Waxing gibbous
The moon becomes bigger each night. It’s described as “gibbous,” which means it looks swollen on one side.
5. Full Moon
The complete face of the moon reflects the sun’s light. We can now see a full moon.
6. Waning gibbous
The moon is now waning, or shrinking. It will keep waning until there’s another new moon.
7. Last quarter
The moon is now three-quarters of the way around the Earth.
8. Waning crescent
We can now see just a sliver of the moon. It has almost completed a full orbit of the Earth.
Phases of the moon
The moon takes just less than 28 days to orbit the Earth. The different shapes that the moon appears to be are known as phases. This is what the moon’s orbit looks like from space
What are the two sides of the moon?
Near side
The near side of the moon is the side that always faces Earth. The Earth helps to shield it from collisions with space rocks, but some do still hit it and make craters.
Far side
The far side of the moon never faces the Earth. The only people who have ever seen the far side are astronauts who have flown over it. There are many craters on this side.