The Moon
Thanks for joining us!
This episode was written by Jean and voiced by Kara and T.
Episode art was created by Jean.
It was originally released in May 2024.
— We love these books about the moon —
Click on each photo for a link to the book
Click on this image to download our printable on the phases of
the moon
— Moon Episode Summary —
What is the moon? —
The moon is a rock in the shape of a sphere.
The planet Earth, and the other seven planets in our solar system, travel around the sun.
And the moon travels around the Earth. Another word for the way to moon moves around Earth is that it orbits around planet Earth.
Gravity of the Earth holds the moon in a path around it. That is called gravitational pull.
We on Earth see only one side of the moon.
The moon is illuminated, or lit up, by the light from the sun.
Why does the moon look different each night? —
Lunar phases are the shapes in which the moon appears in the night sky.
It takes about a month for the moon to change through all of its phases.
Sometimes a lot of the moon is illuminated by the sun, and sometimes only a little. This is because the moon and earth are always moving in space around the sun.
The new moon is when the moon is not lit up at all from the sun.
The crescent moon is a thin, curved banana shape.
The gibbous moon is a thicker, rounded shape.
The quarter moon looks like half of a circle.
The full moon appears as a full circle and it is very bright at nighttime.
Space exploration on and around the moon —
Scientists know more about the moon because of the Apollo space missions.
Rockets were sent to the moon to travel around it, take pictures of it, and then to land on it.
Finally, a large space capsule took 3 astronauts to space where they orbited the moon. Then 2 of the astronauts got into a smaller capsule called the Lunar Module, which landed on the moon.
A man named Neil Armstrong was the first human to walk on the moon. He had to wear a special space suit with an air tank in order to breathe, because there is no air on the moon. He brought a camera with him and so he could share with the world what the surface of the moon looked like. He also put an American flag on a pole in ground – and that flag is on a board to always keep it open because there is no air or wind on the moon to make it wave.
The astronauts brought moon rocks and soil back to Earth for scientists to learn from. They found no signs of living plants or animals or water.
Right now there are scientists at work who are working on the Artemis space program at NASA to explore the moon again.
Stories have long been told about the moon —
People long ago made up stories to explain the moon.
Some people thought they could see a man’s face in the light and dark patterns on the moon.
Some people believed they could see a rabbit on the moon. In China, a story is told of the Jade rabbit on the moon. Their story says that a rabbit was using a bowl to pound ingredients to make a moon cake for a goddess which would keep her young forever. In Japan, they say that the rabbit is pounding ingredients to make mochi or rice cakes.
There is a Native American legend about a rabbit on the moon. A young rabbit wanted to go to the moon. A crane was the only bird who would take him there. The rabbit held onto the legs of the crane which stretched them out. When they reached the moon, the rabbit’s paws were bleeding and it touched the crane on its head, giving the crane a red spot. To this day, crane’s legs are very long and they have a red mark on their heads. The legend says the rabbit can still be seen on the full moon.