When Earth does block the light, we see a lunar eclipse.ĭuring a total solar eclipse – when the sun is obscured by the moon – the Sun’s corona, only visible during the total eclipse, is shown as a crown of white flares from the surface. Earth normally doesn't block the sunlight because the Moon's orbit is slightly tilted. This happens when the moon is on the opposite side of the Sun from Earth. Sometimes the illuminated half of the moon coincides with the half facing Earth. “The moon spins on its axis and orbits the Earth in the same amount of time – it's called synchronous rotation,” Patel said. The same half of the moon always faces the Earth, too. The same goes for the Earth – half of us experience daylight while the other half experience night. “Wherever the moon is in its orbit around the Earth, it is always half lit up by the sun.” Patel told Live Science. “The moon is only visible to us because it is reflecting the sun's light,” said Dhara Patel, a space expert at the United Kingdom's National Space Centre in Leicester. (Image credit: NASA Goddard) Why does the Moon have phases? This is what is known as a waxing crescent moon. It takes 29.5 days to go through this cycle of phases once, according to the Lunar and Planetary Institute. So a waning gibbous comes first, followed by a last quarter moon, a waning crescent and then a new moon once more.
Current lunar phase for 98576 full#
(It comes from an old Middle English word for "hump" because that's the shape it resembles in the night sky.) After the moon is full we say that the moon begins to wane. Next comes a waxing gibbous moon - part way between a first quarter and a full moon. During a first quarter moon, skywatchers see a quarter of the entire Moon illuminated. But if you think about it, the moon can be split into four quarters: two on the side of the moon facing us and then two on the side that faces away from the Earth. Over time, we begin to see more of it and we say the moon is waxing.įirst, we see a waxing crescent, then a so-called “ first quarter moon.” It's a slightly confusing name because it actually appears as a half-illuminated moon in the night sky. We say the moon is " new" when there's no light from the moon reaching Earth. Here's what it will look like tonight: What are the moon's phases? In fact, it is possible to work out the dates we'd see these phases for the next 50 million years. As the phases are the moon are caused by the moon's orbit around Earth, they are entirely predictable.
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