Satellites
Earth's
natural satellite - the Moon
- Orbiting many of the planets are natural satellites,
called moons
- Our Earth has one moon.
- It moves
in an orbit round the Earth.
- It is held in this orbit by the pull of Earth's Gravity.
- It goes around the Earth in an anti-clockwise direction.
- The Earth also spins in an anti-clockwise direction at the same time from west to east.
- It takes one lunar
month (28 days) to complete one orbit of the Earth.
- The Moon is a dead object.
- It has no light of its own.
- As it goes around the Earth we see the
moon surface reflecting the Sun's
light.
- It looks different at different
times of the month, changes its shape.
- It has phases.
The phases are about 4
days apart. See animation and diagram below.
What
is it like on the Moon- click here?
Continue... Gravity
Tags: Satellites, Moon, Moon phases