The Moon

The moon is a closest neighbour of the earth in the space. It is a non-luminous body. It looks bright because it reflects the light of the sun. It is about 3,84,000 kilometers away from the earth. It is much smaller than the earth. It rotates on its axis and it is also revolving round the earth in its orbit.
The moon's surface is rough and uneven. Its surface is dusty and has highlands, vast number of big, round and hollow  craters and flat black plains.
            
Unlike the earth, the moon is dry and barren with no atmosphere and water. This results in adverse climate and no rainfall. This is why, the moon cannot support life.

Phases of the moon
        

The moon is a non-luminous body and it revolves round the earth. Due to it, the bright part of the moon goes on changing daily and appears in different shapes. These types of daily changes in the shape of the moon are called the phases of the moon. When the moon lies between the sun and the earth, the dark part of the moon faces to the earth and the bright part faces away from the earth. In this condition, the moon is invisible. This is called new moon. After the new moon, the bright part of the moon increases every day.

         

 When the earth lies between the sun and the moon, the total bright part of the moon faces to the earth and the total dark faces away from the earth. This causes the moon to arrears completely bright. This is called the full moon. After the full moon, the bright part of the moon decreases every night. The new moon and the full moon occur alternately at a regular interval of about 15 days.