slide 1 - Time-lapse video of the ocean tide coming onto a beach.

How the Moon Affects Earth's Oceans

From hundreds of thousands of miles away, the Moon is part of your day at the beach. Here’s how. Video: Tides rise and fall in Acadia National Park. Credit: National Park Service More ›

slide 2 - Illustration with question marks and a thinking emoji over the moon surface

Lunar Photography Guide

Whether you have a phone or a professional camera, here’s how to take great Moon photos.
Photo credit: Bill Dunford

Explore the Moon

Earth’s ocean tides result from an intricate dance of forces and motions. The Moon plays a starring role.

Tides

Like Earth, the Moon has a day side and a night side, which change as the Moon rotates.

Moon Phases

Between four and seven times a year, Earth, Moon and Sun line up just right to create the cosmic-scale shadow show known as an eclipse.

Composite of lunar eclipse phases over night sky

Eclipses

When the full moon is a little bit closer to us than usual, it appears especially large and bright in the sky.

A supermoon partially obscured by treeline in the foreground.

Supermoons

Why can I see the Moon during the day? And other frequently asked questions about our Moon.

Global Event

#ObserveTheMoon with NASA

Join NASA's annual, worldwide celebration of the Moon, and find tools and resources that can help you keep observing all year long.

Moon Phase and Libration, 2021

Animation showing the geocentric phase, libration, position angle of the axis, and apparent diameter of the Moon throughout the year 2021, at hourly intervals.

What the Moon will look like from Earth, every hour of every day of 2021.

News from NASA

NASA launches interactive graphic novel "First Woman"

From childhood dreams of space travel to being selected as an astronaut candidate, fictional astronaut Callie takes us on her journey to the Moon.
NASA's Artemis Rover to Land Near Nobile Region of Moon's South Pole

NASA’s VIPER will land near the western edge of Nobile Crater, near the Moon’s South Pole, to map and explore the region’s surface and subsurface for water and other resources.
The Importance of Surface Shadows in Moon Water Puzzle

We’ve long known that water exists in some of the Moon's dark craters, but the 2020 discovery of water on the sunny, daylit parts of the Moon presented a puzzle. A new study provides an explanation: shadows from the Moon’s rugged terrain.