Video
The Moon in Motion
The time the Moon takes to turn on its axis and the time it takes to orbit Earth are equal—27.32 days.
Thus, the Moon is in a synchronous rotation with Earth, so one side of the Moon, called the near side, always faces Earth. The part of the Moon we can’t see is called the far side. A new Moon is the phase of the Moon in which it is nearly or totally invisible from Earth. When the Moon is between Earth and the Sun, the light from the Sun falls on the far side of the Moon.
