Why is the moon glowing?

We all know the extremely familiar natural phenomenon: the sun shines in the daytime, the moon shines at night. So, where is the light that the Moon glows?

The answer is, the Moon is not able to light itself, it is just a mirror reflecting sunlight. If we stand from the Moon observing the Earth, it will also be very bright due to receiving light from the Sun.

Why is the moon glowing? Picture 1

In 1969, two astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the moon, they discovered that the surface of the Moon was dark gray like concrete. Because of the rough surface and dark colors, the Moon can only reflect from 3% to 12% of sunlight.

We often see, the degree of moon lighting at night is often different. That's because the position of the Moon in orbit around the Earth is different every day. The moon rotates a circle around the Earth with an orbit of 27.32 days. During this cycle, the Moon is illuminated by the Sun from different angles.

Why is the moon glowing? Picture 2

When the Moon is in the opposite position from the Sun or in other words when the Zodiac longitude of the Moon and the Sun differ between 180 degrees, the Moon is brightest. Then, the entire half of the Moon is illuminated by the Sun so we can see the entire half from Earth. That is called a full moon phenomenon .

When the Moon is in the position between the Earth and the Sun, the Moon's illumination face does not return to Earth, so we cannot observe the Moon from Earth, this phenomenon is called the Moon phase .

Why is the moon glowing? Picture 3

Before and after the new Moon phase, we often see a part of the Moon ( Crescent ) due to those days because only a small part of the Moon reflects sunlight. The rest of the Moon only sees dim light because this part does not receive direct light from the Sun but only receives sunlight reflected by the Earth, called the "Earth-shining " phenomenon.

Venus has a 65% chance of reflecting sunlight, so Venus is the brightest celestial body in the night sky.