Science & Nature
EasyMoon Crossword: Looking at the Moon
Category: Science & NatureDifficulty: Medium14 × 12
Saturday, September 19
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Enter one letter per square. Answers run Across or Down. Omit spaces and accents; any special spelling convention is stated in the clue. This is a freeform themed grid, so some letters are not crossed.
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About This Theme
The Moon is familiar enough to recognize at a glance, but how well do you know the language used to describe it? This grid combines everyday observations with a few terms from lunar science. Some clues ask about shapes we see from Earth; others look at the surface itself. Read the wording closely when a historical name appears. A name can preserve an old interpretation even after science has supplied a different explanation. Let the shorter entries help you work into the specialist vocabulary.
Clues
Across
- 1Bowl-shaped marks left by lunar impacts (7)
- 3Loose dust and rocky debris covering the lunar surface (8)
- 5Moon phase shape that is more than half lit but not full (7)
- 8The Moon's changing apparent shapes (6)
- 10Dark lunar plains named with the Latin plural for seas (5)
- 11Latin name that gives us the adjective lunar (4)
- 12Moon shape resembling a curved sliver (8)
Down
- 2Event when Earth's shadow darkens the Moon, preceded by lunar (7)
- 4The Moon's brighter, elevated terrain (9)
- 6NASA program that landed astronauts on the Moon (6)
- 7Describing a Moon whose illuminated portion appears to shrink (6)
- 9Describing a Moon whose illuminated portion appears to grow (6)
Answers and Explanations
After Your Solve
The most revealing pair here is MARIA and HIGHLANDS: two contrasting kinds of terrain that help give the visible Moon its pattern. REGOLITH names the loose surface material rather than a single kind of rock. Notice, too, the distinction between a phase and an eclipse. The ordinary cycle of changing illumination is not the same event as the Moon entering Earth's shadow. This puzzle rewards keeping those categories separate. If you used a crossing to finish a technical word, revisit its clue once the full spelling is visible.
- 1 acrossCRATERS
Impact craters record collisions at the surface.
- 3 acrossREGOLITH
Regolith is fragmented surface material.
- 5 acrossGIBBOUS
Gibbous lies between a half-lit appearance and full.
- 8 acrossPHASES
Phases reflect how much of the sunlit half we see.
- 10 acrossMARIA
These dark basins were filled by ancient lava.
- 11 acrossLUNA
Luna is Latin for Moon.
- 12 acrossCRESCENT
A crescent shows less than half of the visible disk illuminated.
- 2 downECLIPSE
A lunar eclipse involves Earth's shadow.
- 4 downHIGHLANDS
The highlands contrast visually with the darker maria.
- 6 downAPOLLO
Apollo carried crews to the lunar surface.
- 7 downWANING
Waning is the decreasing part of the cycle.
- 9 downWAXING
Waxing is the increasing part of the phase cycle.
Further Reading
- Theme referencescience.nasa.gov
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