MOON
The moon is neither a star nor a planet. It is a ball of rock that travels around Earth, taking about 27 days to complete the circle. It is the brightest object in the night sky, although the light it “shines” is reflected from the Sun.
The Moon may have formed when a large object or planetesimal collided with the newly-formed Earth more than four billion years ago. The impact “splashed” into space vast amounts of debris that later came together to form the Moon.
A completely barren world, the Moon’s surface consists of cratered highlands and wide plains. The Moon’s internal structure is similar to Earth’s; its crust is thicker and not divided into tectonic plates.
With neither air nor liquid water, it is impossible for plants or animals to live on the Moon. The barren lunar landscape is pitted with craters, blasted out by meteorites crashing to its surface. Scattered debris has left streaks radiating from some craters. The Moon also has wide, smooth lava plains. Early astronomers thought these were seas. They are still called by the Latin name for sea, mare.
PHASES OF THE MOON
The shape of the Moon appears to change from one night to the next. This happens because, as it travels round Earth, it spins only once, so the same face remains pointed towards us at all times. It is our view of the sunlit part that changes. When the face pointed towards us is turned away from the Sun, we cannot see the Moon at all: a New Moon (1).When it is turned towards the Sun, we see a complete disc: a Full Moon (5). In between, it passes through crescent (2), quarter (3) and gibbous (4) phases, and back again (6-8).
Picture Credit : Google