Earth’s Luna: The Moon

Size of moon in diameter

• It only has a trace of hydrogen, helium, neon, and argon atoms, along with other traces in even lesser quantities. It’s all, or mostly all, made of solid rock.

The beginning of the monthly lunar cycle, or lunation.

The moon’s bright areas are getting bigger. This phase happens as the Moon moves away from the Sun–Earth line while orbiting Earth.

As the Moon moves around its orbit, it reaches a point where the Earth–Moon line is at right angles to the Earth–Sun line.

When the illuminated part of the Moon that we can see grows larger than the quarter (half) Moon but is still smaller than the full Moon.

When the Moon is on the far side of its orbit, opposite the Sun in the sky, the lunar hemisphere that faces Earth is fully lit.

The moon appears as a quarter moon again after a Full moon.

As the Moon nears the line between Earth and the Sun, it becomes a ______ Moon.

The period of time over which the lunar phases change from the new Moon to the next new Moon, which averages 29 days, 12 hours, and 44 minutes.

It occurs when there is a full Moon at the same time that the Moon is at the closest point (perigee) in its orbit around Earth.

It looks like other full Moons, and it’s not blue in color. It’s just a bit rare, as in the common expression “once in a blue moon.”

It occurs when you watch the Moon rising above the horizon. It seems to most viewers that the Moon looks bigger then than it does a few hours later when the Moon is high in the sky.

It occurs when a full Moon is exactly on the line from the Sun to Earth.

A phenomenon that happens as the Moon moves across the background stars while orbiting Earth, it sometimes eclipses a bright star.

The star disappears behind the moon.

The star comes out from behind the Moon.

Event when an asteroid passes in front of a star.

All craters and basins on the moon.

The larger, bright areas in the Man in the Moon, which are heavily cratered areas.

Consisting of fine rock dust, covers the surface of the Moon.

Mountains of rubble thrown up in the rebound of the lunar surface from the effects of a powerful impact.

The rims of large craters or impact basins, which may have been partly destroyed by subsequent impacts.

Bright lines formed by powdery debris thrown out from some impacts.

The Moon consists of material blasted out of the mantle of Earth by a huge object — with up to three times the mass of Mars — that struck young Earth with a glancing blow.