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During a full moon, rays of sunlight are hitting the visible portion of the Moon perpendicular to the surface. As a result, there is less surface detail visible during a full moon than during other phases (such as the quarter and crescent phases) when sunlight hits the Moon at a much shallower angle.
At the Moon's surface, the beam is about 6.5 kilometers (4.0 mi) wide [24] [i] and scientists liken the task of aiming the beam to using a rifle to hit a moving dime 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) away. The reflected light is too weak to see with the human eye.
The dark (far) side of the Moon receives about the same amount of light from the Sun as the near side. It is called "dark" not because it never receives light but because it had never been seen until humans sent spacecraft around the Moon, since the same side of the Moon always faces the Earth due to tidal locking. [8]
Oceans reflect the least amount of light, roughly 10%. Land reflects 10–25% of sunlight, and clouds reflect around 50%. Thus, the part of Earth where it is daytime and from where the Moon is visible determines how bright the earthshine on the Moon appears at any given time. Earthshine reflected from the Moon during conjunction with Venus (left)
This phenomenon is most visible from Earth at night (or astronomical twilight) a few days before or after the day of new moon, [5] when the lunar phase is a thin crescent. On these nights, the entire lunar disk is both directly and indirectly sunlit, and is thus unevenly bright enough to see.
The Moon's color depends on the light the Moon reflects, which in turn depends on the Moon's surface and its features, having for example large darker regions. In general, the lunar surface reflects a brown-tinged gray light. [213] At times, the Moon can appear red or blue.
Being that human beings are made up of roughly 70 percent water, the moon has quite an influence on our emotional and physical bodies. Think about it—the moon’s gravity literally pulls the ...
Lunar corona A solar corona up Beinn Mhòr (South Uist). In meteorology, a corona (plural coronae) is an optical phenomenon produced by the diffraction of sunlight or moonlight (or, occasionally, bright starlight or planetlight) [1] by individual small water droplets and sometimes tiny ice crystals of a cloud or on a foggy glass surface.