Explain what causes us to see the different phases of the moon Include in your explanation a reference to the motion of the moon involved the relationship of the earth's and moon's plane of orbit a?

Answer 1

What you can see of the moon is the light of the sun on the moon. The part that is dark is where the sun's light is not shining on the moon. The part where the light of the sun is on the moon is experiencing "moon day" and where it is not shining is the "moon night." When the moon is in part of its orbit that is between the earth and the sun, we mostly see the part of the moon which is dark. Since the moon is on the sun's side of the earth, we see it during the day. So a New Moon can always be seen during the day. Conversely, when the moon is in the part of its orbit in which the earth is between the moon and the sun, we mostly see the part of the moon which is in sunshine. We mostly see the moon at night, and a Full Moon can always be seen during the night. It is important to note that the dark part of the moon is not the earth's shadow on the moon. The earth's shadow falls on the moon occurs during a lunar eclipse, which is always during a full moon because the earth is between the sun and the moon and always seen at night.

Answer 2

The different phases of the moon are caused by the relative positions of the sun, Earth, and moon. As the moon orbits Earth, the angle between the Earth, sun, and moon changes, causing different portions of the moon to be illuminated by sunlight, creating the various phases. The moon's orbit is slightly tilted compared to Earth's orbit around the sun, which is why we see the different phases as the moon moves in and out of Earth's shadow.