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it does not! it just looks that way, its because the moon is rotating around the earth it is moving closer and then moving backward, again and again.

To clarify the original answer, the moon appears at times larger or smaller because the orbit of the moon around the earth is not a perfect circle, but rather an ellipse. So, there are times in the orbit when the moon is closer to the earth than at other times. When the moon is furthest from the earth it appears about 12% smaller than when it is closest.

Also, the questioner may be alluding to an optical illusion that occurs, that makes the moon appear larger when the moon is close to the horizon, and smaller when it is high in the sky. This occurs because when the moon is low you have a points of reference on the ground to compare it to, making it look bigger, and when high in the sky, it is by itself against a large empty background, making it look smaller.

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15y ago

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