Wonder Question: What causes the changing phases of the Moon, and how do they affect life on Earth?

Why did I choose this Wonder Question?

I chose this wonder question as the moon has always intrigued me. Every day when I look up at the night sky, I see a new form of the Moon and it makes me wonder why it behaves that way. The Moon plays a significant role in our lives as the Moon is Earth’s only satellite. It stabilizes our planet’s axis, keeps Earth’s tidal activity under control and has potentially played a role in the formation of life. Understanding such a vital part of life is essential to me as I’m curious to delve deeper into what the Moon and its changing phases.

What are the changing phases of Moon?

The Moon goes through eight primary phases:

The New Moon: At this time, the portion of the Moon that is illuminated by the Sun is on its side that is pointed away from Earth, making it impossible to see at all. When the Moon is in this phase, it is between the Sun and the Earth. The Moon is often either above or below the Sun due to its five-degree tilt in its orbit around the Earth. On occasion, though, it will align itself directly with the Sun, producing a solar eclipse. A solar eclipse occurs two to five times a year on average.

Crescent in waxing: A tiny portion of the Moon is seen as it travels around its orbit. It assumes a crescent form due to the Moon’s roundness; since we can only see the edge of the portion that the Sun illuminates, and since the item is round, the edge appears to be curved. During the Moon’s first quarter, half of its illuminated surface is visible from Earth. This translates to mean that we are witnessing illumination of 25% of the Moon’s whole surface, which explains the somewhat ambiguous moniker.

Waxing gibbous: A gibbous moon is one that is lighted over half of its surface as seen from Earth.

Full Moon: The full near-side of the moon is illuminated when it is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. Similar to why there aren’t solar eclipses with every new moon, there aren’t lunar eclipse.
Waning gibbous: The lighted area of the Moon that is visible from Earth starts to shrink in size following the full Moon. The majority of the Moon’s surface is still visible from Earth during the waning gibbous phase.

Half of the Moon’s illuminated surface is visible from Earth during the third quarter. The portion of the Moon’s near side that was not illuminated at first quarter is known as the lighted part.

Waning crescent: The last phase of the moon occurs when, in contrast to the waxing crescent, only a small portion of the moon is visible (on the far side of the viewable surface) before it vanishes once again into the new moon phase.

After learning about the different phases of the Moon we circle back to our Wonder Question to answer what causes the changing phases of the Moon.

There are 3 main factors that cause the changing phases on the Moon. Those include the positions of the Moon, Earth and Sun. The Moon is only visible to our eyes due to the Sun. The Sun is the main light source for the Moon as it can’t produce its light. The moon revolves around the Earth and reflects light from the sun making light fall on different areas of the Moon at various times. This is what creates the different phases of the Moon that we view on planet Earth. It takes around 27 days for the moon to orbit the Earth and that is when all the phases we see are visible. One New Moon to the other New Moon takes 29-30 days.

How do these phases affect life on Earth?

Moving on to answering the second half of my question, how the Moon phases affect life on Earth was another thing I was curious about as I see the Moon in the night sky and wonder if different forms of the Moon make any difference on humans living on Earth.

As I brushed around this topic earlier in the introduction, the Moon plays a major role in ocean tides. The pull of the moon’s gravity is the reason why ocean tides occur. When the Moon is in its new or full phase, it aligns its gravity with the sun which results in more extreme tides, resulting in either higher high tides or lower low tides. When the Moon is in its first and third quarters, the Moon’s gravity works in opposition to the Sun creating weaker tides known as Neap Tides.

The Moon also plays a vital role in animal behaviour and plant growth. Certain species of birds and fish use the phases of the Moon to map out and navigate their migrations. During a full moon, fish often come out more to eat whereas during a new moon, they are less active and eat less. The moon also impacts nocturnal animals such as owls and wolves. At the time of a full moon, these animals have a harder time hunting due to increased light making it easier for the prey to spot them. The moon also impacts plant growth both negatively and positively. During the Waxing Moon phase, more plant growth occurs in comparison to the Waning Moon phase where less plant growth occurs. This is some evidence that researchers believe in regard to plant growth but there needs to be more research to dig deeper into the relationship between moon phases and plant growth.

Lunar eclipses and solar eclipses are the most common and exciting times. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth is positioned between the sun and the moon resulting in a shadow on the moon. This happens during the full moon phase and adds a reddish-brown colour to the moon. Solar eclipses occur when the moon passes between the Sun and the Earth which results in the blockage of sun rays and a shadow on the Earth. This occurs during the new moon phase. Both these eclipses are extremely rare, making it so exciting and special.

Conclusion:

To conclude, the Moon is the most important part of Earth as it plays a crucial role in life on Earth. From a beautiful sight in the sky, we love and admire to affecting tides, plant growth and animal behaviour. The 8 different and unique moon phases influence life, creating harmony on Earth. Without the Moon, we wouldn’t be standing here today which is why it is important to understand the moon as it causes significant effects and natural life on planet Earth.

REFLECTION:

1. What questions did you need to research in order to complete your research?

• In order to complete my research I researched the following questions,
• What are the different phases of Moon?
• What causes the changing phases of Moon?
• How does that affect life on Earth?

2. What new or familiar digital tools did you try to use as you worked through this project?

For this project, I mainly relied on Google and Youtube as my research tools. I took information from websites I thought supported my wonder question, understood what was written and explained it in my own words. I also used YouTube to dive deeper into my question and get more information.

3. What was the process you used to investigate the topic?

 I have always been fascinated about Moon and how it affects life on Earth. When this project came along I immediately knew my project was going to revolve around the Moon. To add more to the Moon idea, I thought about the moon phases and how that could potentially affect life on Earth. Once that was settled, I began with the research template we were given in class. I completed that digitally and had all my information laid out on a word document with reliable sources.

4. How did you verify and cite the information you found?

To keep my work authentic, I made sure everything I wrote was written in my own words. I also cited all the websites I used to help my in the process of my research by using a MLA citation generator.

5. How did the process of completing this challenge go? What could you have done better?

The process of completing this process had its ups and downs. The main hurdle for me was time as this project was quite time consuming. I didn’t anticipate that it would take so long and I wish I started earlier and managed my time better. This is something I will keep in mind for future projects.