Open Science Education: Moon Phases and Eclipse

Moon Phases and Eclipses

by Maximiliano Cordera

Remember what is the revolution?

​The Earth moves around the Sun.

​It takes 365 days to complete a full revolution

​But the planets are not the only celestial bodies that rotate and revolve

Multiple Select

What do you know about the moon? Select all the answers

• It rotates around the Earth

• It has its own light

• Is a natural satelite

• Its gravity keeps the Earth close

​The moon

​The moon is a natural satellite that orbits the Earth

​It takes 28 days to make a complete revolution around the Earth

​It also takes 28 day to rotate once on its own axis

​Satelite

​Is a body that orbits a larger body

​Seven of the eight planets have natural satellites or moons

​The Earth has only one Moon

Open Ended

What is the gravity force?

​Gravity

​Is the force that all bodies with mass have.

​This force pulls other objects toward themselves

​

The Sun has much more mass than the Earth so, its gravity force is greater and makes the Earth (and the other 7 planets) orbit around It

​

​Earth and the Moon orbits the sun

• ​Together with the Earth and the Moon orbit the Sun

• ​The moon is orbiting the sun while orbits the Earth

• ​The Earth is orbiting the Sun because of Sun's gravity

Open Ended

Why does the Moon orbit around the Earth?

​How far is the moon

​To an astronaut, it takes 3 days to reach the moon

​

​If you wanted to travel in a get it took more than 20 days to reach the moon

​

​The moon is roughly 383, 000 km from the Earth

​How can we see the moon?

​Why do we always see the rabbit?

​The moon also rotates

​So why do we always see the same face?

​

​The moon rotates as the same speed that revolves so we are alwa

Open Ended

Why does the moon's appearance change?

​The moon has many phases

​As the moon revolves around the sun it faces and reflects the sunlight in different ways making us see different faces of the moon

​Moon phases

​Moon phases

​When the Sun, Moon, and Earth are lined up the moon cannot reflect sunlight to the Earth and we are not able to see it that is a NEW MOON.

​14 days after that the moon will be aligned in the other side of the Earth and now it can reflect all the sunlight that strikes it and we can see a FULL MOON

​Waxing vs waning

​Waxing

​Waning

​Crescent vs gibbous

​Crescent

​Gibbous

​Eclipse

Is an event during which one object ​ in space casts a shadow onto another.

​On the Earth, we can see two types of eclipses

​

• ​Lunar Eclipse

• ​Solar Eclipse

​Lunar eclipse

​Is when the Moon enters into the Earth's shadow and it is not able to reflect sunlight

​Earth's shadow

​The Earth's shadow has two parts. the umbra and the penumbra

​Umbra

​The umbra is the darkest part of the shadow

​Penumbra

​Around the umbra, the shadow spreads in a cone form called Penumbra.

​Is a lighter shadow

​Moon eclipse

​If the moon passes completely over the umbra we can see a total eclipse

​

​On the other hand, if the moon misses part of all the umbra there will be a partial eclipse

Multiple Choice

What type of eclipse will occur if the moon were in the area A

• Partial moon eclipse

• Total moon eclipse

• Partial solar ecplise

• Total solar eclipse

Multiple Choice

What type of eclipse will occur if the moon were in the area B

• Partial moon eclipse

• Total moon eclipse

• Partial solar ecplise

• Total solar eclipse

Solar eclipse​

Is extremely rare but there can be also solar eclipses​

Fill in the Blanks

What can be so big to cover all the Sun?

​Solar ecplise

​A solar eclipse occurs when the moon covers the sunlight for reaching the Earth for a few minutes

​

​Again there are two types of solar eclipses

• ​Total eclipse

• ​Partial ecplise

​Solar ecplise

The only place where you can see a total solar ecplise is where the umbra strike if you are where the penumbra strike you will see only a partial solar eclipse