Understand the moon phases and you can wager a pretty good guess for when the next full moon is just by looking up.

The Moon, Earth's nearest celestial neighbor, has fascinated humanity for ages with its ever-changing phases.

Suppose the moon was a cube instead of a sphere. What would the phases of the moon look like as seen from Earth?

It's confusing, right? If the moon is going around Earth while Earth is going around the sun, does this mean the moon is making circles in circles? Seems reasonable.

What is the moon phase today? Today, May 7, 2025, the moon is 10 day old and is in the Waxing Gibbous phase of its lunar cycle. It is 77% illuminated.

As the phases are the moon are caused by the moon's orbit around Earth, they are entirely predictable. In fact, it is possible to work out the dates we'd see these phases for the next 50 million ...

As the moon, Earth, and the sun go through their orbital dance, the part of the moon that's illuminated by sunlight moves in and out of our view, creating a predictable series of lunar phases.

Learn about what causes the phases of the Moon it orbits the Earth and what a lunar month is with this KS3 Physics guide for BBC Bitesize.

The phases of the moon — new moon, first quarter, full moon and last quarter — repeat themselves about once every month. But why does the moon have phases at all?

This will also mark the closest the moon is to Earth during its first quarter phases of 2022. During this close first quarter moon, the moon will be about 229,985 miles (370,125 kilometers) from ...

This diagram easily breaks down the science of what's happening in space with the sun, moon, and Earth during the April 8 total solar eclipse.

Half of the moon will be illuminated as it reaches its first quarter phase on Monday, June 2. The first quarter phase marks the quarter point on the moon's monthly journey, according to NASA.