The Moon does not make its own light like a star. The Moon appears bright because it reflects light from the Sun. Like the Earth, half of the Moon faces towards the Sun, and half faces away from it.

No doubt inspired by classic orreries driven by clockwork, [Marian]’s LEGO Sun-Earth-Moon orrery is instead driven by either hand cranks or by electric motors. The orrery aims to be ...

For one thing, the Earth tilts at ... to model mechanically. The moon also has a 5.15 degree inclination, but since that’s hard to notice at this scale, the LEGO orrery exaggerates it.

Because its orbit around the sun closely matches Earth's, astronomers determined that the "mini-moon" likely originated from nearby in our solar system. Now, research published this month in the ...