Empirical Earth · The Sky — Sun, Moon & Stars

What the Moon is made of — regolith & albedo

The claim

“Moonlight is the Moon’s own cold light; it is a luminous disc, not a reflector.”

What is measured

The Moon reflects only ~12% of the sunlight hitting it (albedo 0.12, like worn asphalt). It is a dark rock lit by the Sun, not a glowing disc.

What would show this is wrong

a Moon that stayed equally bright through its phases, or brightened toward its limb like a self-lit disc.

Sources

  1. Lunar albedo & regolith. The Moon’s geometric albedo is ~0.12 (Bond ~0.11), comparable to worn asphalt; the regolith’s opposition effect retro-reflects sunlight, giving the full disc near-un link
  2. Lunar occultations: stars wink out instantly. When the Moon passes in front of a star, the star vanishes in a fraction of a second at the limb rather than fading — proof the Moon is a solid, link
  3. Lunar surface charging and the near-surface plasma environment. Lacking an atmosphere and a global magnetic field, the Moon is charged directly by solar ultraviolet and the solar wind: photo link
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