WHY DOES THE MOON ORBIT EARTH?

• The moon orbits (travels in a circle around) Earth because there is a force between Earth and the moon called gravity. Because of gravity, larger objects naturally pull smaller ones toward themselves. Since Earth is larger than the moon, Earth pulls on the moon. At the same time, Earth is being pulled by the sun, because the sun is larger than Earth. The balance between those two “pulls” is what keeps the moon in orbit around Earth.

• Although you hear people all the time saying the moon was shining, the moon does not actually have any light of its own. What we see as its light is really the sun’s light reflecting off of the moon’s surface. As the moon orbits Earth and Earth orbits the sun, we see different amounts of light reflecting on the moon depending on its position. We call the changes in the moon’s appearance lunar phases.  From one new moon to the next new moon is one complete lunar cycle.

• It takes the moon between 27 and 28 days to completely orbit Earth.   The moon’s orbit is measured from one new moon to the next new moon, starting in the west and moving counter-clockwise toward the east.   To complete one full orbit, the moon has to travel about 1,423,000 miles. Believe it or not, the moon travels at an average speed of 2, 288 miles per hour!  The force of gravity helps keep us grounded as the moon rotates around us, and we spin and rotate around the sun.

 Name:__________________________________

Answer the following questions based on the reading passage. Do not forget to go back to the passage whenever necessary to find or confirm   your answers.

1)  What two spheres are being pulled by the force of gravity?

2)  Why does Earth pull on the moon instead of the other way around?

3)  What’s really happening when the moon  “shines”?

4)  Which moves faster, your family car, or the moon?

5)  Name one new thing that you learned about the moon or its orbit.