what do we call the different shapes of the moon?
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When the bright part is getting bigger, the Moon is waxing. When it is getting smaller, the Moon is waning. When the Moon is more than half-lit, it is called a gibbous Moon. When the moon is less than half-lit, it is called a crescent Moon.
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Orbits come in different shapes. All orbits are elliptical, which means they are an ellipse, similar to an oval. For the planets, the orbits are almost circular.
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Answer: A full moon is when the moon is on the opposite side of the earth from the sun. The sunlight hits the moon straight on, as seen from earth. A new moon is when the moon is between the earth and the sun. ...
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Earth. Scientists only recently learned that our moon is mostly made of the same basic material as Earth, likely a result of its troubled birth. As our planet was forming, astronomers think it collided with a Mars-sized body they've named Theia. ... could fit between it and Earth.
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['Oval Body Shape. ... ', 'Rectangle Body Shape. ... ', 'Triangle Body Shape. ... ', 'Trapezoid Body Shape. ... ', 'Inverted Triangle Body Shape.']
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A five-sided shape is called a pentagon. A six-sided shape is a hexagon, a seven-sided shape a heptagon, while an octagon has eight sides…
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The moon is a bit more than one-fourth (27 percent) the size of Earth, a much smaller ratio (1:4) than any other planets and their moons. Earth's moon is the fifth largest moon in the solar system. The moon's mean radius is 1,079.6 miles (1,737.5 kilometers).
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Phases of the Moon. The Moon doesn't emit (give off) light itself, the 'moonlight' we see is actually the Sun's light reflected off the lunar surface. So, as the Moon orbits the Earth, the Sun lights up different parts of it, making it seem as if the Moon is changing shape.
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['Spring tide: Sun and Moon on the same side (0°)', 'Neap tide: Sun and Moon at 90°', 'Spring tide: Sun and Moon at opposite sides (180°)', 'Neap tide: Sun and Moon at 270°', 'Spring tide: Sun and Moon at the same side (cycle restarts)']
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Craters are round, bowl-shaped depressions surrounded by a ring. They're made when a meteoroid in space collides with a planet, moon or other astronomical body. ("Meteorite" is what a meteor is called if it does not burn up before it lands.
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Galaxies are classified by shape. There are three general types: elliptical, spiral, and irregular. Perhaps the most familiar kind of galaxy are spiral galaxies. They have a distinctive shape with spiral arms in a relatively flat disk and a central "bulge".
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People in different hemispheres see the moon in a slightly different way. In the Southern Hemisphere, people see the moon 'upside down' so the side which is shining (sunlit) seems the opposite from the Northern Hemisphere. ... The side of the Moon and its phases vary depending on our location on Earth.
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The moon's surface is covered with dead volcanoes, impact craters, and lava flows, some visible to the unaided stargazer. Early scientists thought the dark stretches of the moon might be oceans, and so named such features mare, which is Latin for "seas" (maria when there are more than one).
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However, confusion arises because the name of the moon orbiting Earth is called "The Moon," and the sun, more accurately the star, of our solar system is called "The Sun." Therefore, the words moon and sun can be either proper nouns or common nouns depending on context.
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More than Four Sides A five-sided shape is called a pentagon. A six-sided shape is a hexagon, a seven-sided shape a heptagon, while an octagon has eight sides…
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Any circle drawn around the Earth divides it into two equal halves called hemispheres. There are generally considered to be four hemispheres: Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western.
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['Surfaces. Many forces shape the solid surfaces of planets and moons. ... ', 'Ring systems. All of the gas giant planets—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—have rings. ... ', 'Moons. The more than sixty moons of the solar system are a diverse collection of worlds. ... ', 'Atmospheric storms. Great atmospheric storms occur on all the gas giants.']