Moon Study Guide

1. The moon is about 1/4 the size of Earth.

2. It is 238, 000 miles away from Earth.

3. The moon has no life, water, wind, or atmosphere.

4. There is a permanent black sky on the moon (it’s dark).

5. The daytime temperature is 250 F and nighttime is -290 F.

6. The surface is a gray-brown dust.

7. On the moon there are craters, mountains, seas of hardened lava, and huge rocks.

8. Maria- seas of hardened lava on the moon.

9. The moon completes a revolution around Earth every 28 days.

10. Earth’s gravity keeps the moon spinning on it’s axis and completing an orbit in 28 days.

11. The moon causes Earth’s oceans to have high and low tides.

Moon Phases

The Sun shines on the moon. At any time, half the moon is in daylight, and it is nighttime on the other half.

As the moon rotates around the Earth, we see only part of it’s daylight half. So each night of the month, we see a slightly different “phase” of the moon.

waxing phases- moon is getting larger and brighter.

full moon- shining disk in the sky that we see all of

waning moon- what we see of the moon is getting smaller

new moon- near side of the moon is completely in a shadow (we can’t see it at all)

Picture Credit: http://web.dps.k12.va.us/ParkAve/