The Moon & Its Phases
Vocabulary
Craters
Moon's Formation
Tides
100

During this lunar phase the entire Moon is visible from Earth.

What is a full moon?

100

This is the term used when more than half but less than all of the Moon is illuminated.

What is gibbous?

100

The two main types of craters are these.

What are simple and complex?

100

This is the name of the most widely accepted scientific theory explaining how Earth's Moon formed.

What is the Giant Impact or Collision Theory?

100

This term describes the regular rise and fall of ocean water levels.

What is tides?

200

It takes this many days for the Moon to complete one cycle of phases.

What is about one month or 30 days?

200

This is a piece of a meteoroid that hits the ground.

What is a meteorite?

200

This is the material displaced from the land when a crater is formed.

What is ejecta?

200

Scientists believe the object that collided with early Earth was approximately the size of this planet.

What is Mars?

200

The gravitational pull of this object is the main cause of Earth's ocean tides.

What is the Moon?

300

The Moon orbits in this direction around Earth.

What is counterclockwise?

300

This type of crater typically has a bowl shape.

What is a simple crater?

300

A meteoroid burning in Earth's atmosphere is called this.

What is a meteor?

300

Scientists discovered that rocks collected from the Moon have chemical similarities to rocks from this planet, providing evidence supporting the Giant Impact Theory.

What is Earth?

300

This type of tide occurs when ocean water reaches its highest level along the shore.

What is high tide?

400

When the lit portion of the Moon's surface is increasing it is called this.

What is waxing? 

(Remember: Wax on, Wane off)

400

The distance from one side of a circle to the opposite side going through the center is call this.

What is diameter?

400

The Moon has much more craters than the Earth because of this.

What is Earth's atmosphere?

400

According to the Giant Impact Theory, the Moon formed when this material came together in orbit around Earth.

What are rocks and debris from the collision?

400

This type of tide occurs when the difference between high tide and low tide is greatest.

What is a spring tide?

500

This happens to create a solar eclipse.

What is the Moon moves between the Sun and Earth?

500

This is a dark, relatively flat area on the Moon.

What is a mare or maria (plural)?

500

Name three properties that could make different crater formations.

What are size, speed and impact angle of the impactor?

500

This Moon formation theory suggests that the Moon formed somewhere else in space and was later pulled into Earth's orbit by gravity.

What is the Capture Theory?

500

Neap tides occur during these two phases of the Moon, when the Sun and Moon pull on Earth's oceans from approximately right angles.

What is first-quarter and third-quarter moons?