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Space Place NEW
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We learn about basic astronomy in first grade. This page includes some important information as well as many fun and informative links. Why do we have day and night?
We have day and night because the Earth rotates. It spins on it's axis, which is an imaginary line passing through the North and South Poles. The Earth spins slowly all the time, but we don't feel any movement because it turns smoothly and at the same speed. The Earth takes a whole day (24 hours) to make a complete turn.
At any time half of the Earth faces the sun. This part has day.The sun is the source of light for day. The other half of the Earth faces away from the Sun. It receives no light. The earth is dark and has night.
What do we know about the moon?
The Moon travels around the Earth in a circle called an orbit. It takes the moon about 28 days to go one time around the Earth.
The Moon is about 250,000 miles (384,400 kilometers) from Earth and has a diameter of 2,000 miles ( 3,476 kilometers).
The Sun always lights up (illuminates) half of the Moon at one time.
The Moon is not a light source, it has no light of its own. We can only see the moon because it reflects light from the sun.
The Moon appears to change shape but what we are actually seeing is the Moon lit up by the light from the Sun in different ways on different days.
Did you know?
We always see the same side of the moon. The Moon always keeps the same side pointing towards us so we can never see the 'back' of the Moon from the Earth.
It takes the Moon 28 days to orbit the Earth.
Why does the moon keep changing its shape ?
The bright part of the moon is the part that the sun is shining on. This is like daytime on earth. The dark part is in shadow, like night on earth.
As the moon moves around in its orbit, the sun shines on different parts of the moon.
New moon is when the moon and the sun are on the same side of Earth. The moon is between the sun and the Earth. We see the side which is not lit, so the moon is dark.
Gibbous moon is between a full moon and a half moon, or between a half moon and a full moon.
Quarter moon is when the moon has completed one quarter of an orbit around the Earth from either the full or new moon. One quarter of the moon's surface is visible from Earth. Sometimes called half moon.
Full moon is when the Earth is between the sun and the moon.
If it is black then it's a new moon. 
Mrs. Herndon's website
Bristol Virginia City Schools
Washington-Lee Elementary School
900 Washington-Lee Drive
Bristol, Virginia 24201
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