Sun and Moon

The Sun and Moon


Although many people think the Sun is a massive star, it’s actually quite small compared to the other stars in our Solar System. The Sun is at a perfect distance because if it was any closer, Earth would have boiled and if it was any further away, our planet would be a dead, dark and desolate place. The reason why we can’t see any other stars that are bigger than the Sun is because they’re to far away! The Sun is the closest star to us.

Again, many people think that the Moon is the Sun’s counterpart for the night-time. Well, once again, they’re wrong. The Sun, and only the Sun emits light.(Well, apart from the other stars in the Solar System.) The Earth, the Moon and all the other planets do not make light. So how does that explain the Moon looking bright at night? Well, the Moon actually has a reflective surface, so imagine the Sun is a giant torch.
If you switch that torch off, everything becomes dark and all you see is the other stars because they produce their own light. The Moon and all the other planets are plunged into darkness. Now imagine the torch being turned on. You can now see the Moon and the rest of the planets, because the light is shining on them. The torch is the Sun and exactly the same thing happens with it, except it doesn’t switch off. It’s just because the Earth rotates and you can’t see it, but it’s still there, facing the Earth and creating light that is reflecting off the Moon’s surface.

The phases of the Moon are caused by the Moon’s shadow. At any given time, half of the moon is facing the Sun, while the other half is looking away from it, and looks dark.
The cycle starts with a new moon and ends with a new moon, all within the space of a lunar month(or 28 days)-the time it takes or the Moon to rotate once around the Earth.
It looks like there is a different Moon every night.
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