The Moon
Earth’s Moon is the brightest object in the sky during the night. Most nights we are able to see the Moon clearly from the Earth. The Moon however does not always appear the same to us; the Moon’s various appearances throughout the month are known as moon phases. These phases are caused by the shadows created by Earth’s orbit around the Sun and the Moon’s orbit around the Earth.
There are five total phases of the Moon and the Moon is always in one of these five: new moon, full moon, half moon, crescent moon, and gibbous moon.
The Moon is not only a bright object in the sky; it effects on our planet. Tides are an important influence the Moon has on the Earth. Tides are the effects of the gravitational pull the Moon has on the Earth; this gravitational pull effects parts of the Earth differently causing water levels to rise and fall as what we know as the tides.
Watch this video to see all of the moon phases: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmmyu88wMHw “This visualization shows the Moon’s phase and libration at hourly intervals throughout 2015, as viewed from the northen hemisphere. Each frame represents one hour. In addition, this visualization shows the Moon’s orbit position, sub-Earth and subsolar points, distance from Earth at true scale and labels of craters near the terminator. To learn more about this visualization, or to see what the Moon will look like at any hour in 2015, visit http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?4236”
This graphic visually represents the moon phases with the position of the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon.