Among them is the timeless Man in the Moon, a soft grey face that has been with many of us since our earliest childhood days.<\/p>\n
But what’s going on here? And does everyone see the Man in the Moon? It turns out, different cultures have seen different shapes in the Earth-facing side of the Moon throughout history.<\/p>\n
![\"Full](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/full-moon-rising.jpg\")
Credit: PetesPhotography \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/man-in-the-moon.jpg\")
The features that form the Man in the Moon. Credit: BBC Sky at Night Magazine, Mark Garlick, Science Photo Library, Getty Images
\nWhy we see the Man in the Moon \u2013\u00a0and what it’s made of<\/p>\n
Best seen when the Moon is full, a few well\u2011placed shaded areas of light and dark prompt our brains to find patterns and put together a human-like companion from its physical features.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the same instinct that turns a drifting cloud into a galloping horse or a rock formation into a wide-mouthed dinosaur.<\/p>\n
The ability to make familiar patterns out of everyday objects is a psychological phenomenon called pareidolia (or, in the case of the Moon, lunar pareidolia).\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Mare](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/09.MareImbriumCloseUpRogerHyman-6c471cd.jpg\")
Mare Imbrium close-up, by Roger Hyman, Sparkford, Somerset, UK 13 January 2022<\/p>\n
Today, we know the Man in the Moon\u2019s \u2018eyes\u2019 are the basalt plains of Mare Imbrium<\/a> (the Sea of Rain) and Mare Tranquillitatis<\/a> (Sea of Tranquillity) or, for some, Mare Serenitatis<\/a> (the Sea of Serenity).<\/p>\n His \u2018mouth\u2019 is Mare Nubium (the Sea of Clouds) and Mare Cognitum (Known Sea), and his \u2018nose\u2019 is formed by Mare Insularum (the Sea of Islands) and Mare Vaporum (the Sea of Vapours).<\/p>\n However, those patterns have been interpreted differently across European history.<\/p>\n Medieval folklore tells of another Man in the Moon, a figure carrying a bundle of sticks, formed from the shape of the dark basins of Mare Imbrium, Mare Serenitatis and Mare Tranquillitatis, while the Romans saw this figure as a sheep thief.<\/p>\n The stick-gathering figure may trace its roots back to biblical writings in the second millennium BC and an Old Testament story in which a man is stoned as punishment for gathering firewood on the Sabbath.<\/p>\n How various cultures see the Man in the Moon Around the world, the Moon is home not to a human but other creatures.<\/p>\n Across East and Southeast Asia, it\u2019s a rabbit \u2013 a figure whose outline is traced by the vast sweeping arcs of six of the Moon\u2019s seas and the enormous Oceanus Procellarum (the Ocean of Storms).<\/p>\n In Chinese folklore, this is Yutu the Rabbit, a companion to the Moon goddess Chang\u2019e, who is tirelessly pounding the elixir of life with a mortar and pestle.<\/p>\n The story appears in texts as early as the Han dynasty, and later in Buddhist tales, where the rabbit\u2019s selflessness became a symbol of virtue.<\/p>\n Variations echo across eastern Asia: in Japan, the rabbit pounds mochi; in Korea, it prepares rice cakes; in Vietnam, it mixes herbal medicines.<\/p>\n In some Pacific Northwest indigenous cultures, a story tells of a toad jumping to the Moon to escape a wolf\u2019s advances, remaining there to this day.<\/p>\n Across parts of the Pacific, other traditions describe a woman, a tree or a set of ancestral figures.<\/p>\n The Man in the Moon is only visible from the Northern Hemisphere because Northern observers see the seas that form his face arranged in an upright, face\u2011like pattern.<\/p>\n In the Southern Hemisphere, the same features appear rotated by roughly 180\u00ba \u2013 in other words, upside down \u2013 so the familiar eyes and mouth no longer align as a face, and different shapes emerge, like the rabbit or toad.<\/p>\n This is down to the Moon being in synchronous rotation or, put more simply, being tidally locked to Earth.<\/p>\n When the Moon formed billions of years ago, it rotated much faster than it does today and the power of Earth\u2019s gravity created a tidal bulge in its crust.<\/p>\n As the Moon rotated, the bulge was constantly moving across its surface and, over millions of years, this slowed the Moon\u2019s spin until one rotation matched one orbit around Earth, leaving the same hemisphere \u2013 the near side \u2013 permanently facing us.<\/p>\n The Moon is also tilted slightly, about 6.7\u00b0, with respect to its own orbital plane around Earth.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite the many ways people interpret these near-side shapes, they all come from the same contrast between shadow and light \u2013 the dark basalt plains set against the bright highlands, forming a lunar canvas that has inspired a tapestry of myths across cultures for thousands of years.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Moon formed approximately 4.5 billion years ago<\/a>, most likely from debris thrown into orbit after a Mars\u2011sized body called Theia<\/a> collided with the early Earth.<\/p>\n The molten rock and debris gradually coalesced into the single satellite we see today, its surface preserving a record of ancient volcanic activity and relentless impacts.\u00a0<\/p>\n The dark seas \u2013 immense basalt plains created when lava welled up to fill vast impact basins 3.9\u20133.1\u202fbillion years ago \u2013 form a stark visual contrast with the Moon\u2019s older highlands and its younger craters.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the arrangement of those seas scattered across the lunar surface that creates the familiar pattern many in the Northern Hemisphere recognise as the Man in the Moon.\u00a0<\/p>\n These basins range in size from hundreds to thousands of kilometres in diameter and have remained largely unchanged for billions of years.<\/p>\n That\u2019s because the Moon lacks the atmosphere, weather or plate tectonics to reshape them.<\/p>\n As a result, the same arrangement of maria and highlands that early sky\u2011watchers interpreted as a face still gazes back at us today.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Observing-Apollo-11-sites-668a7f7.png\")
A view of the Apollo 11 landing sites in Mare Tranquillitatis. Credit: Pete Lawrence<\/p>\n
\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/rabbit-in-the-moon.jpg\")
The Rabbit in the Moon. Credit: BBC Sky at Night Magazine, Mark Garlick, Science Photo Library, Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/toad-in-the-moon.jpg\")
The Toad in the Moon. Credit: BBC Sky at Night Magazine, Mark Garlick, Science Photo Library, Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/man-with-sticks-in-the-moon.jpg\")
While modern Northern Hemisphere observers see a face, European medieval folklore saw a man surrepticiously gathering firewood. Credit: BBC Sky at Night Magazine, Mark Garlick, Science Photo Library, Getty Images
\nWhy the Man in the Moon is always facing us<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/low-lying-strawberry-moon.jpg\")
Credit: Philippe Paternolli \/ Getty Images
\nWhat made the Man in the Moon<\/p>\n![\"Earth\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/theia-moon-formation-theory.jpg\")
Earth\u2019s Moon is thought to have formed when a Mars-like object called Theia smashed into Earth, flinging material into space that became the Moon. Credit: NASA<\/p>\n