The moon circles around the Earth once every 29 1/2 days. The moon does not spin like the Earth. The moon only spins once a month on its axis. The moon looks bright at night, but it does not make its own light.
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Our MoonThe moon is a ball of rock that is dry and dusty. It has craters, valleys, mountains, and large patches called seas. In 1969, the first man stepped onto the moon. There is no wind or rain on the moon to wash the footprints away.
We see the moon because the sun shines on it. The sunlight bounces off the moon and down toward the Earth. We see reflected sunlight.
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As the moon travels around the Earth, we can see different amounts of the side lit by the sun. The moon’s appearance changes each day through the month depending on where the moon is in its orbit.•These changes of how the moon looks from the Earth are called the moon’s phases. Sometimes the moon looks completely dark and seems to disappear. This is called a new moon. Sometimes the moon looks round. This is called a full moon.
It appears to grow larger until it is a round, full moon. Then the full moon appears to grow smaller. This is called the waning moon. When the moon goes from a new moon to a full moon, it has complete one orbit of cycle
A complete orbit of the moon around the Earth produces the moon’s phases that we see. This complete cycle of the moon’s phases takes 29.5 days. Because of the moon’s orbit or cycle of 29.5 days, moonrise can appear later each day. That is why we see sometimes see the moon in the sky at night and other times we see it during the day.
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