Why Does the Moon Glow? Causes of Illumination

[dirtypunk]

why does the moon appear to glow from our view on earth? what causes the illumination?

 

[NobodySpecial]

The sun

A flashlight and an orange will also let you work out why we see cresent, full and half moons

 

[Kevin_Axion]

Yes the reason it glows is the sun but the cause is because the surface of the Moon has an extremely high albedo (high-reflectivity).

 

[cjameshuff]

Yes the reason it glows is the sun but the cause is because the surface of the Moon has an extremely high albedo (high-reflectivity).

The moon has rather low albedo, only reflecting ~14% of the light that hits it...similar to coal. It looks bright at night because it's lit by the sun against a black sky...it's like a lump of coal, but sunlit coal, in an otherwise perfectly dark room. (okay, a smattering of tiny, dim pinprick lights for the stars)

When seen in the day, with your eyes adapted to sunlight, it's much dimmer, largely blending in with the daytime sky.

 

[DaveC426913]

The moon has rather low albedo, only reflecting ~14% of the light that hits it...similar to coal.

Yep. Coal... Pavement...

 

[NobodySpecial]

Although it does reflect more than a diffuse flat 0.12 albedo surface so it's not really a fair comparison - it's far from a Lambertian reflector.