THE MOON AND ITS PHASES Unit 5 Section 2

The Moon The pull of ____________ keeps the Moon, Earth’s natural satellite, in orbit around Earth Even though the Moon is Earth’s closest neighbor, it’s still extremely far away Between Earth and the Moon is about ___________ mi. (100 times between LA and NYC) It would take 20 days in a car but only ______ days in a space ship

The Moon Only 1 side of the Moon faces Earth and can be seen This means the Moon turns once on its own ___________ each time it orbits Earth

The Moon’s Craters and History The half of the Moon that constantly faces Earth is called the ___________ side The half that faces away from Earth is the _________ side

History Just like on Earth, the Moon has features that are given names to discuss them The features are in the __________ language because that’s how astronomers communicated The features on the moon are light and dark

History Astronomers thought the dark features might be ____________________ Astronomers used the Latin word for sea The dark areas on the Moon are still called __________ (The plural form is maria)

History Are the maria really water? What might the features on the moon be made of? _______________________

Craters and Maria The light colors on the Moon are at higher ____________ These areas are rocky and often covered in a powder of finely broken rock The round features on the Moon are called _______________ that were formed when space objects hit the Moon

Craters The craters long ago filled with ______________, or ___________ The largest maria are on the __________ side of the Moon The widest and deepest basin is on the Moon’s ________ side near the Moon’s south pole

Moon Rocks There are different ages of rocks on the Moon The surface rocks have been calculated to be ____________ The rock in the maria formed of lava is _______________ The dark colored rocks formed by lava are called ____________

Moon Rocks The lunar basalt found on the Moon, can be the same found beneath Earth’s _____________ The moon has remained mostly unchanged for 3 billion years

Similar but Different Similar to Earth, the Moon has layers but their proportions are different

Cool Fact The Moon has moved _________ away from Earth each year You probably won’t see a difference in your lifetime

Moon’s Phases Waxing means ______________ Waning means ______________ _____________ moons are the small slivers of the moon _____________ moons are the larger moon’s but smaller than a full moon It takes about _________ days for the moon to orbit Earth

Moon’s Phases

Eclipses The Earth and Moon create two shadows behind them where the sun’s light does not reach The darkest part of the shadow is the ______________ Around the umbra is a lighter shadow called the _________________

Eclipses An ______________ occurs when a shadow makes the sun or moon seem to grow dark In a _____________ eclipse, the moon darkens In a _____________ eclipse, the sun seems to darken

Eclipses A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves entirely into Earth’s umbra In a solar eclipse, the Sun seems to darken because the Moon’s shadow falls onto part of Earth