(ORDO NEWS) — As the Moon revolves around the Earth, it goes through eight different phases. We tell you what these phases are, how they affect a person, and what the lunar cycles will be like in 2022.
Advice on how to quickly determine whether the Moon is growing or aging: if the month looks like the letter “c”, then the Moon is aging, but if you substitute an imaginary line to the left of the month, and it will look like the letter “r”, then it is growing
What are the phases of the moon
The Moon, like the Earth, is a sphere that is always half illuminated by the Sun. When the Moon moves around the Earth, we see its more or less illuminated half.
And speaking quite simply, then the phases of the moon describe what part of the lunar disk is illuminated by the Sun at the current moment.
1. New Moon
At this time, the Moon is between the Earth and the Sun, and the side of the Moon facing us does not receive direct sunlight – instead, it is illuminated only by dim sunlight reflected from the Earth.
2. Growing crescent (young moon)
As the Moon moves around the Earth, the side we see gradually becomes more illuminated by direct sunlight.
3. First quarter
The area of the illuminated surface of the Moon continues to increase. Now it seems that the Earth’s satellite is exactly half illuminated.
4 Waking Moon
Almost the entire Moon is illuminated, and in poor visibility it may seem that the full moon has already arrived, but in fact, some more time must pass before this phase begins.
5. Full moon
So the full moon phase has come, when the moon is 180 ° from the sun – so close that it is completely illuminated by it. At this time, the Sun, Earth, and Moon line up, but since the Moon’s orbit is not exactly in the same plane as the Earth’s, they rarely form a perfect line. But when it does happen, a lunar eclipse occurs.
6. Waning Moon
More than half of the visible part is illuminated by the Sun, but this area is already beginning to decrease.
7. Last quarter
The moon has shifted another quarter to the position of the third quarter. Only now the light of the Sun illuminates the other half of the Earth’s satellite.
8. Old Moon
The month is gradually decreasing, becoming invisible to the naked eye. But the Moon does not go anywhere, it remains circling the Earth, being in the shadow for some time.
What is the phase of the moon
Scientists have repeatedly conducted research aimed at studying the influence of the lunar phases on humans. For example, at the beginning of 2021, German scientists discovered that the Moon can affect the menstrual cycle in women.
During the study, they conducted an analysis of the data, which indicated that the dependence of the menstrual cycle on the phase of the moon does exist, although it manifests itself only in certain situations.
For example, scientists found that menstruation and the moon phases only synchronized if the first cycle was longer than 29 days, and women lived in rural areas or in cities where the level of light pollution in the sky was minimal.
Another study by scientists has proven that the phase of the moon can affect the quality of sleep – and men and women react differently to this.
Researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden found that both men and women sleep worse during the waxing moon. However, this effect was especially pronounced in men.
The authors of the work suggest that the fact that the human brain reacts to moonlight when the lighting increases (during the growing moon) is to blame, preventing us from sleeping.
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