Why does the moon glow?

 

The Moon is said to be a "natural satellite." A satellite is an object that orbits a planet. The moon orbits the Earth. It is said that the moon does not have its own light, but rather reflects the light of the sun. The side of the moon that faces the sun will be bright. The side of the moon that is away from the sun will be dark.

When the sun's light hits the moon's surface, some of the light is reflected back into space. This is how we see the moon from Earth. The moon does not have a atmosphere like Earth does. This means that there is no air on the moon to scatter the sunlight. This is why the moon looks dark when it is in Earth's shadow. The moon goes through phases. The phases are: new moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, last quarter, and waning crescent. The new moon is when the sun and the moon are on the same side of Earth. This is also when the moon is in Earth's shadow. The waxing crescent is when the moon is getting bigger in the sky. The first quarter is when the moon is half lit up. The waxing gibbous is when the moon is getting bigger and is more than half lit up. The full moon is when the sun and the moon are on opposite sides of Earth. The waning gibbous is when the moon is getting smaller and is more than half lit up. The last quarter is when the moon is half lit up. The waning crescent is when the moon is getting smaller. The moon takes 27.3 days to go around Earth. The moon's orbit is not perfectly round. It is elliptical. This means that the moon's distance from Earth changes as it orbits. The moon's orbit is also tilted. This is why we sometimes see the moon in front of the sun (a solar eclipse) or the moon in front of Earth (a lunar eclipse). The moon has dark areas called maria (Latin for "seas"). The maria are actually lava flows that happened long ago. The lava cooled and formed a crust. The maria are darker than the highlands because they have less iron. The moon has craters. Craters are created when something hits the surface of the moon. They can be created by meteorites, comets, or volcanoes.