* It only has a trace of hydrogen, helium, neon, and argon atoms, along with other traces in even lesser quantities. It’s all, or mostly all, made of solid rock.
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New Moon
The beginning of the monthly lunar cycle, or lunation.
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Waxing Crescent
The moon’s bright areas are getting bigger. This phase happens as the Moon moves away from the Sun–Earth line while orbiting Earth.
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Quarter Moon
As the Moon moves around its orbit, it reaches a point where the Earth–Moon line is at right angles to the Earth–Sun line.
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Waxing Gibbous
When the illuminated part of the Moon that we can see grows larger than the quarter (half) Moon but is still smaller than the full Moon.
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Full Moon
When the Moon is on the far side of its orbit, opposite the Sun in the sky, the lunar hemisphere that faces Earth is fully lit.
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Last Quarter
The moon appears as a quarter moon again after a Full moon.
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waning crescent
As the Moon nears the line between Earth and the Sun, it becomes a ______ Moon.
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Synodic Month
The period of time over which the lunar phases change from the new Moon to the next new Moon, which averages 29 days, 12 hours, and 44 minutes.
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Supermoon
It occurs when there is a full Moon at the same time that the Moon is at the closest point (perigee) in its orbit around Earth.
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Bluemoon
It looks like other full Moons, and it’s not blue in color. It’s just a bit rare, as in the common expression “once in a blue moon.”
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Moon Illusion
It occurs when you watch the Moon rising above the horizon. It seems to most viewers that the Moon looks bigger then than it does a few hours later when the Moon is high in the sky.
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Lunar Eclipse
It occurs when a full Moon is exactly on the line from the Sun to Earth.
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Lunar Occultation
A phenomenon that happens as the Moon moves across the background stars while orbiting Earth, it sometimes eclipses a bright star.
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Immersion
The star disappears behind the moon.
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Emersion
The star comes out from behind the Moon.
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Asteroidal Occultation
Event when an asteroid passes in front of a star.
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Impact Craters
All craters and basins on the moon.
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Lunar Highlands
The larger, bright areas in the Man in the Moon, which are heavily cratered areas.
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Lunar Soil
Consisting of fine rock dust, covers the surface of the Moon.
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Central Peaks
Mountains of rubble thrown up in the rebound of the lunar surface from the effects of a powerful impact.
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Lunar mountains
The rims of large craters or impact basins, which may have been partly destroyed by subsequent impacts.
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Rays
Bright lines formed by powdery debris thrown out from some impacts.
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Giant Impact Theory
The Moon consists of material blasted out of the mantle of Earth by a huge object — with up to three times the mass of Mars — that struck young Earth with a glancing blow.
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Flashcard (42)