Why the Moon has different phases?

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Why the Moon has different phases?


The cyclical phases of the Moon are actually different angulated views of the Moon created by the relative positions of the Sun, Earth, and Moon. 


• At any one point of time, the Moon is half-lit by the Sun (except during lunar eclipses when the Moon is directly behind the Earth with respect to the Sun and is completely shadowed by the Earth). 
• However, as the Sun, Earth, and Moon periodically move and orbit through space, the portion we see illuminated on the Moon changes. Since the unlit portion of the Moon remains invisible to the naked eye, we only see the different Moon “shapes.” 
• Note that the phases of the Moon are different geometric views of the half-lit Moon from Earth, which are not created by the shadow of the Earth on the Moon.
Moon Phases


The new Moon occurs when the Moon, Earth, and Sun all lie along approximately the same line. Since the Sun is behind the Moon from Earth’s perspective, the side of the Moon that faces Earth is dark. 
• At full Moon, the three bodies also lie approximately in a line, but this time, the Moon is on the opposite side of Earth, so the Sun illuminates the whole side facing us. 

• At first quarter and last quarter, the Moon lies perpendicular to a line between Earth and the Sun. We see exactly half of the Moon illuminated by the Sun the other half lies on the other side. The "quarter" used to name these phases refers to the respective fraction of an orbit that the Moon has completed since New Moon. 
• Crescent refers to phases where the Moon is less than half-illuminated, while gibbous means more than half is illuminated. Waxing means “growing” or expanding in illumination, and wanning means “shrinking” or decreasing in illumination.





Lunar Orbit Cycle

The whole cycle (from new Moon to new Moon) takes about 29.5 days.
Lunar Orbit Cycle
A Lunar Month cycle, the time from full moon to full moon, is 29.53 days. This synodic month is longer than a sidereal month: 27.32 days. This is the time it takes for the Moon to orbit the Earth relative to the view of the stars. 
• The discrepancies of the two time periods are due to the fact it takes the Moon 2.21 days to “catch up” because the Earth travels about 45 million miles around the Sun in the time that it takes the Moon to complete one orbit around the Earth. 
• If the Earth were not moving, maybe both the time periods would be about the same.
You can enjoy and capture this with handy gadgets like Binoculars and Digital Cameras. Here you can buy these.
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Stay tuned for more interesting facts about astronomy!


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