Earth has just one Moon. It goes around Earth in a path called an orbit.

The Moon does not make its own light. It shines because it reflects sunlight.

The Moon seems to change shape, but its shape does not really change during the month. What changes is how much of its sunlit side we can see. The Moon's phases happen because the Moon, Earth and Sun change positions as the Moon orbits Earth.

The Moon goes through eight phases, from new Moon to full Moon and back again. At a full Moon, we can see all of the Moon's sunlit side. At a new Moon, we can hardly see the Moon at all.

It takes about 29.5 days to go from one new Moon to the next, or from one full Moon to the next. A calendar month is about the length of time from one full Moon to the next.

From Earth, we always see the same side of the Moon. Until a Soviet spacecraft flew past in 1959, nobody had seen the far side of the Moon.

You may have heard that the far side of the Moon is the dark side. People sometimes call it that, but it is misleading, because the far side gets sunlight too.

Words to know

• orbit: path around
• reflects: bounces back
• phases: Moon looks
• misleading: giving wrong ideas