What is the dark part on the moon?

The ‘dark side’ of the Moon refers to the hemisphere of the Moon that is facing away from the Earth. In reality it is no darker than any other part of the Moon’s surface as sunlight does in fact fall equally on all sides of the Moon.

What is the shaded part of the moon called?

Maria
The near side of the moon has light areas referred to as Lunar Highlands and dark areas called Maria. The maria are lower in altitude than the highlands and filled with dark solidified lava from when the moon was volcanically active.

Why does the moon have dark patches?

The dark spots on the lunar surface are actually craters of varying sizes that formed due to collisions from celestial bodies, such as comets, meteorites and asteroids in the past, which left large, excavated holes after the impact.

What’s covering the moon?

As the moon orbits the Earth, the amount that is in shadow changes constantly. There’s nothing physically covering it; the darkness is a result of your vantage point.

Why is one side of the moon called the dark side?

The other hemisphere is therefore called “the dark side of the moon” because we never see it illuminated by reflected sunlight (or Earth light), even though that hemisphere is very often in the direct path of the Sun’s light.

What is the dark region of the moon called?

Dark regions on the Moon are called maria, which is Latin for “seas”. So Mare Tranquilatis is the ” Sea of Tranquility “. Apollo astronauts discovered that these regions are smooth, low-lying plains with relatively few craters.

What are the dark spots on the moon called?

The dark spots on the moon are called “maria” (“mare” in the singular), which literally means “seas” in Latin. However, despite the misnomer, the maria are low-lying areas that are more like flat plains, that are devoid of water.

What are the regions of the Moon?

While there are only two basic types of regions on the Moon’s surface, there are many interesting surface features such as craters, mountain ranges, rilles, and lava plains. The structure of the Moon’s interior is more difficult to study.

What are the parts of the Moon surface?

Lunar Soil – Major Feature of the Moon. This is not the type of the soil that we have on earth.