Why is the Moon so bright?
How is the Moon so bright? I was told by a person that the moon has shiny sand. Is this true?
Your question is a good one and it gets asked a lot at observatory open houses when people are squinting through the eyepiece at the almost painfully bright lunar surface! The answer is that the Moon is actually not very reflective,the Sun is just very bright. The Moon reflects only about 11% of the sunlight that hits it. But the Sun is so bright that even this much reflection looks very bright to us. The rocks on the lunar surface are greyish volcanic rocks, and although there are small glass particles mixed in (which can be shiny), the overall mixture isn't really very reflective.
Still Curious?
Get More 'Curious?' with Our New PODCAST:
- Podcast? Subscribe? Tell me about the Ask an Astronomer Podcast
- Subscribe to our Podcast | Listen to our current Episode
- Cool! But I can't now. Send me a quick reminder now for later.
Related questions:
More questions about The Moon: Previous | Next
How to ask a question:
If you have a follow-up question concerning the above subject, submit it here. If you have a question about another area of astronomy, find the topic you're interested in from the archive on our site menu, or go here for help.
Main Page | About Us | For Teachers | Astronomy Links | Ask a Question | View a Random Question | Our Podcast
URL: http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=9
This page has been accessed 67672 times since January 22, 2003.
Last modified: January 22, 2003 11:56:49 AM
Ask an Astronomer is hosted by the Astronomy Department at Cornell University and is produced with PHP and MySQL.
Warning: Your browser is misbehaving! This page might look ugly. (Details)