• Question: what causes the different phases of the moon?

    Asked by 123 to Arthur, Clare, Daniel, David, Tora on 13 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: David Wilson

      David Wilson answered on 13 Nov 2014:

      The moon rotates just like the Earth, so it has days and nights. The difference is the moon rotates only once for each time it goes around the Earth, so the same side always faces us. A day on the Moon last 28 Earth days! The phase are us seeing the day-night cycle, so in a Full Moon it’s day on the whole of the side we can see, so all of it is lit up by the Sun, whereas at a half moon it’s daytime on only half of the side we can see.

    • Photo: Daniel Parsons

      Daniel Parsons answered on 13 Nov 2014:

      Hi there,
      The moon revolves around the Earth. One half of the moon is ALWAYS illuminated by the sun… .
      …the phase of the moon is basically, from where we are on Earth, how much of that half of the moon that is constantly illuminated by the sun we can actually see….when the moon is behind the Earth, further away from the Sun, we can see it all (full moon), when it is between us and the sun we can see none (new moon) as the face that is illuminated is away from us ….and the 1st and 3rd quarters are when the moon is half way between those positions on opposite sides of the circle….and we see half the moon’s illuminated side. Great explanation and picture here: http://www.moonconnection.com/moon_phases.phtml

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