The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite — a giant ball of rock that travels around our planet . It is the brightest object in our night sky. Even though it looks small , the Moon is about a quarter of the width of Earth , which makes it surprisingly large compared with the planet it circles .
✨ In 1969, astronauts became the first people to walk on the Moon . Their footprints are still there — there's no wind to blow them away !
📷 Buzz Aldrin · Public domainThe Moon takes about 27 days to travel all the way around the Earth . Here is something curious : it also takes about the same time to spin around once . Because of this perfect match , the Moon always shows us the very same face . Nobody on Earth had ever seen the 'far side' of the Moon until a spacecraft photographed it in 1959.
The Moon seems to change shape during the month . These shapes are called phases . The Moon isn't really changing — we're just seeing different amounts of its sunlit side . Half of the Moon is always lit by the Sun, but as the Moon moves around us, we see that lit part from different angles .
📷 Al-Biruni · Public domain💡 A common mix-up : the Moon does not make its own light . It is not glowing like the Sun. It simply reflects sunlight , like a giant mirror in the sky.
🧩 Order the Moon's phases as it grows.
Full Moon (a bright circle) ? ⤒ ↑ ↓ ⤓
Half Moon ? ⤒ ↑ ↓ ⤓
Crescent (a thin sliver) ? ⤒ ↑ ↓ ⤓
New Moon (we can't see it) ? ⤒ ↑ ↓ ⤓
After the Full Moon , the lit part shrinks again, moving back through half and crescent shapes until it disappears at the next New Moon . The whole cycle , from one New Moon to the next , takes about 29 and a half days — which is roughly where the idea of a 'month' comes from.
💡 The Moon's gravity pulls on Earth's oceans , which helps create the tides at the beach . There are usually two high tides and two low tides each day.
The Moon has no air and no water , so nothing grows there. Its surface is covered in grey dust and dented with bowl-shaped holes called craters , made by crashing space rocks . With no wind or rain to wear them away , craters can stay almost unchanged for billions of years .
📷 David Campbell · Public domain🔗 Match each Moon word to what it means.
The sea rising and falling The Moon's changing shape in the sky A bowl-shaped hole from a crash An object that orbits a planet
The sea rising and falling The Moon's changing shape in the sky A bowl-shaped hole from a crash An object that orbits a planet
The sea rising and falling The Moon's changing shape in the sky A bowl-shaped hole from a crash An object that orbits a planet
The sea rising and falling The Moon's changing shape in the sky A bowl-shaped hole from a crash An object that orbits a planet
✨ The Moon is drifting away from Earth very slowly — about 4 centimetres each year , roughly the speed your fingernails grow .
On the Moon , gravity is much weaker than on Earth — only about one-sixth as strong . That is why the Apollo astronauts could bounce along in great floating leaps , even though their spacesuits were heavy and bulky .
✍️ Fill in the Moon facts.
The Moon is Earth's only natural _____ . Its changing shapes are called _____ , and the bowl-shaped holes on its surface are called _____ .
satellite phases craters planets tides
🃏 Flip a card to learn about the Moon.
? Crater A hole made by a crashing rock
? Phase The Moon's changing shape
? 1969 People first walked on the Moon
? Tides The sea rising and falling
Tap each card to see the answer.
