Moon Moon sen

  Moon is our closest celestial body.  It causes various interesting phenomenons that we experience in our daily life.  In this article we will cover the science behind having full moon and new moon nights.

  Earth revolves around the sun in an elliptical orbit.  Also it rotates around its own axis.  This rotation is the cause for day-night.  The part of the earth facing the sun experiences day while the other half experiences night.  Night is basically earth's own shadow.  Shadows are formed when a opaque object comes in the way of light.  Since light can only travel in a straight line, the opaque object creates a space that is not reachable by light, creating a shadow.  Day and Night are simultaneous events.  When one part of the earth experiences day, the other part experiences Night and they are inseparable.  Earth takes 24 hours for one rotation, hence we have 24 hours in a Day/Night.

 Just like earth, moon also revolves around the earth in an elliptical orbit.  It also rotates around its own axis.  This rotation causes day-night in the moon.  The duration of this is 27 earth days.  i.e. 27*24 hours.  What we see as full moon is the noon time in moon and new moon is midnight.  As we said for the earth, day and night cant be seen as separate events, but 2 sides of the same object.  so what do we exactly mean by noon or midnight ?  Such a simple definition is possible due to a very interesting characteristics of moon.  Moon takes exactly 27 days earth-days for its full revolution around the earth.  Thus its rotation and revolution are synchronized and hence we see only one part of the moon always.  Hence when we say noon in moon, it means it is noon in the visible part of the moon.

Why exactly is moon's rotation and revolution synchronized ?  Why do we have lunar and solar eclipse and why dont they occur at every full moon and new moon days ?

Answers in the next blog ..