does any one know why the moon is round with holes in it?
968628
idealy when an object forms it maximizes it's volume to surface area ratio. for 3-D objects this is a spherical shape. Then over time, debris, errosion, and thousands of other factors distort the shape. Gravity, given an infinate amount of time will reshape the sphere.
933431
The Moon is spherical, so of course half of it's hidden all the time. The Moon's in a tidally locked orbit as well, so the same face is always towards Earth; 44 percent of the Moon's surface can never be seen from Earth.\n\nBut I don't think that's what you were asking. I think you were asking why the Moon looks like a sliver. It's also simple: the Moon is lit by sunlight. You will notice the bright part of the Moon ALWAYS, without exception, points at the Sun. (Sometimes you can faintly see the side away from the Sun; this faint illumination is sunlight bouncing off Earth's clouds and feebly illuminating the Moon through radiosity.)\n\nTo demonstrate the phases of the moon, get a ball and a lamp in a darkened room. Hold up the ball in front of you and turn around. Notice the phases of the ball, just like the Moon.
552110
The moon appears at different angles because like any given solid object, everyone is looking at it from different positions, just like three people looking at a car.\n\nPlace a ball in a dark room, place a torch on a piece of furniture across the room from it. Now place another ball somewhere mid distance, switch the torch on, and walk around the room. Notice how the shadows shape on the furthest ball alters.\n\nNow you have to remember that we are on that ball nearest the torch, and we are walking around the curve. The shape and the angle will change even more just depending on where you are on that ball.
7285
THe bright ring is called a 'halo'\n\nIt's a fairly common sight and occurs when high thin clouds containing millions of tiny ice crystals cover much of the sky. Each ice crystal acts like a miniature lens. Because most of the crystals have a similar elongated hexagonal shape, light entering one crystal face and exiting through the opposing face refracts 22 degrees, which corresponds to the radius of the Moon Halo. \n\nSee a nice picture here:\nhttp://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000515.html
1023489
No.  But we see only the side that faces earth.\n\nHere's a good diagram that explains it better than I can...\n\n\nhttp://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/the_universe/uts/moon2.html
1016790
It's because your mind sees the moon in proportion to landscape features when it is low.  It's kind of an optical illusion - it's not really bigger but your mind interprets it as bigger.
77245
"The Moon also turns around, but its "day" is a whole month long.  Because it takes as long for the Moon to orbit the Earth as it does for the Moon to rotate once, the same face of the Moon is always pointed at the Earth.  Humans had not seen the "far side of the Moon" until we were able to send spacecraft behind it.  Remember, though, that the FAR side of the Moon is not always the DARK side of the Moon"
842966
The tidal forces between the Earth and the Moon slowed the Moon's rotation until it became locked with its orbit around the Earth. The Moon therefore always keeps the same side of its surface facing the Earth. As the Moon orbits the Earth, the entire half facing the sun is illuminated, but the amount of this lighted half that we can see changes. Thus the Moon seems to change shape or phase. The far side of the Moon is lighted part of the time and dark part of the time as well; hence it is incorrect to refer to it as the "dark side of the Moon" (sorry, Pink Floyd).\n\nFor a picture of what the far side of the moon looks like check\nhttp://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/9810/farside_apollo16.jpg&imgrefurl=http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap981008.html&h=432&w=421&sz=41&hl=en&sig2=9NUu37Lghow0vp6Kt4utAw&start=3&tbnid=zr8LzmzCjXAnwM:&tbnh=126&tbnw=123&ei=y7hmRb_rDbXmwQGpmMHlAQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dfar%2Bside%2Bof%2Bthe%2Bmoon%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG
59556
It's due to the formation of the planets themselves.  the gases and the dust spun around the sun as the star formed itself, and congealed into the planets we know.  And since they spun as they formed, they started the spinning on their axis as well.  \n\nBesides, we'd be either cooked or frozen if the Earth didn't revolve!\n\nHarley's wrong.  The moon DOES spin on an axis.  However, its spinning is on par with the Earth's spinning, thus you only see the one side of the moon.
299559
As the Moon moves along its orbit around the Earth its hemisphere toward the sun is fully illuminated.\n\nBut from the Earth we see only the hemisphere that is turned toward us.\n\nThat is, we are not seeing that hemisphere which is fully illuminated by the Sun.\n\nThat is why we see different shapes which are called phases of the moon.\n\nIn new moon day, the moon is in between Sun and Earth, and the moon’s non illuminated hemisphere is toward Earth and in the back ground of Sun’s bright light, the moon is invisible.\n\nWhen Moon is at 90 degree from the Sun, half of the illuminated hemisphere of Moon is visible from Earth. \n \nWhen Moon is at 180 degree from the Sun, full of the illuminated hemisphere of Moon is visible from Earth. We call it as Full Moon.
370
The Earth is round because it is a large body, and gravity tends to make large bodies round because that is the gravitational efficient configuration for the matter to be in.\n\nThere are a few reasons you can encounter non-round bodies in space:\n\n1) the object is small (for example asteroids), so it's gravity has less say proportionally on the shape\n\n2) It has experienced a catastrophic collision with a large body\n\n3) It is under very strong rotational or tidal forces\n\n4) It is expelling matter/energy in the form of cosmic jets, nova ejecta, etc.
1069004
For the most part, the atmosphere moves along with the surface of the earth. On the other hand, winds going in any direction tend to grind down mountain peaks.\n\nHowever, if the Earth were not fairly close to round, then the molten lava inside the earth would rupture the crust and deform the earth into a round shape. The main reason the Earth is round is gravity, not wind.
756100
i would generally say no its not, as the atmosphere is only between 5 adn 10 miles high, the moon is considerably further away than this.\n\ncant explainy why its like this has something to do with the creation of the solar system the mood being far away and such.
940937
the light side of the moon move in front of the sun causing it to form the image you see that is know as the solar eclipse\n(since the dark side of the moon is facing you then it's clearly dark, and the sun's behind it so light shines around it)
688214
The flag placed on the moon (or any other man made object on the moon) is far too small and way too far away to be seen by any telescope on (or orbitting above) Earth, the angular size is just too small.\n\nIt can be verified mathmatically that it is impossible to see the flag with a telescope from Earth using the formula to find the minimum angular resolution size as seen through a circular aperture,\ntheta_min = 1.22 * lambda / Diameter\nwhere theta_min is the minimum angle (in radians), lambda is the wavelength of light, and Diameter is the diamter of rhe circular opening you are viewing it through.
1027284
because the sun's gravitational pull is much greater than the earth's...same reason the moon goes around the earth and not the other way around
597835
It isn't "chance" although that is why it is the right/size to produce solar eclipses.\n\nThe moon is not perfectly symmetrical. The crust is thinner on our side, and the core (heavy part of the moon) is displaced towards our side. That acts almost like a handle for the earth's gravity. It has slowed to the point where the earth's gravity now keeps this side pointed towards the earth.\n\nHowever it is not perfect. As seen from the earth, the moon wobbles slightly --- both side to side and up and down. The motion is called libration and allows us to see more than half of the moon. We had a discussion on the yahoo lunar group recently with a link to an animated gif that showed the moon's libration.\n\nIf you are interested in the moon, try\nhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/lunar-observing/\n\nChuck