I Wonder Why – Why The Moon Changes Shape?

Why does the Moon change shape?

● The Moon itself doesn’t change shape, it just appears to do so.  It’s how much of 

we can see that changes.

● The Moon is made mainly of rock and doesn’t produce any light itself. We only 

see the Moon when the Sun is shining on it.

● The portion of the Moon that we see depends on its position relative to the Earth 

and the Sun.

● The Moon orbits the Earth every 29.5 days. This is also the same amount of time 

it takes the Moon to rotate once on its axis meaning that the same side of 

the Moon always ends up facing us down on Earth.

● When  the  Moon  is  between  the  Earth  and  the  Sun,  the  side  facing  us  is 

Predominantly dark and we can only see a  small portion of it.  As the Moon 

continues its orbit and eventually reaches the opposite side of the Earth to where 

the Sun is, the entire side of the Moon facing us becomes lit by the Sun and we 

can now see a full Moon.