The dark side of the moon faces away from what? The earth or the sun?

Answer 1

The moon is in a synchronous orbit with the Earth. The same side of the moon is locked towards the Earth, but it is also orbitting the Earth so there is no area of the moon that never get's sunlight. The dark side of the moon refers to the side we can never see from the Earth (where the alien's have the invasion fleet).

Answer 2

The 'light' from the moon is actually reflection of the light from the sun. So most of the time the dark side of the moon faces 'away' from the sun.

Why 'most' of the time? When there is lunar eclipse, the earth gets between the Sun and the moon, blocking sunlight to the moon. So there will be some part facing the sun there is dark and during full lunar eclipse the whole moon will be dark.

So during full lunar eclipse, the whole moon is dark so should I answer as it faces away from everything or nothing?

By the way, do note that the dark zone is not a fix half of the moon. The moon always face the earth with one of it's half. That's why you always see the same shades on the moon. So as the Sun, Earth and Moon moves the 'dark side' of the moon shifts.

Answer 3

Nope. Not always the Sun, when there is a New Moon the dark side faces the Sun, which is why the light side, the side that ALWAYS faces Earth is invisible to us. Because all of the sunlight is being reflected by the dark side. Think about it.

That's how we get moon phases, if the dark side always faced completely away from the Sun we would have a perpetual full moon.

It is the moon orbiting the Earth that gives it these phases, which isn' t the same as the Sun rising and setting which is caused by the rotation of the Earth on its axis.

Answer 4

The "dark side" of the moon is a common misconception.

The reason we see only one side is that the moon circles the Earth in the same amount of time it takes to rotate on its axis.

But while the same side always faces us, all parts of the moon face the sun at different times. The moon does have a "far side," which we can never see from the Earth. But it does not have a "dark side" that never gets sunlight.

Answer 5

The dark side of the moon always faces away from the earth. It isn't always dark on the "dark side" of the moon. "Dark side" of the moon is just a name for the side we can't see from earth, and all parts of the moon get sun at some point.

Answer 6

"There is no dark side of the moon really..."

This is what you hear a voice say at the end of the Pink Floyd album "Dark Side of th Moon" and it is very true. Due to its peculiar orbit and spin characteristic the moon always faces the earth at the same "side". What some people wrongly call "dark side" is the side of the moon that always faces away from the earth and before 1959 no man has actually seen it. Then the soviet spacecraft Luna send back to earth the first very hazy photos of that far hemisphere of the moon.

A lunar day lasts 15 earth days so if even the "dark side" gets a lot of light and hence it is not darker than the side we can see from the earth! :)

Answer 7

The dark side of the moon faces the Earth and away from the sun during the New Moon phase. During the Full Moon phase, the dark side of the Moon faces away from both the Earth and the sun.
The dark side of the moon ALWAYS faces away from the sun just as the dark side of the Earth ALWAYS faces away from the sun.
Also, the "dark side" of the moon refers to the side of the moon that never faces the Earth, even though it does get fully lit during the moons rotation on it's axis.

Answer 8

if it's "dark" clearly the sun :P but what many don't know is that it also the dark side also always faces away from the earth. so the answer is that, at night, it faces away from both the sun and the earth. on the night sky we always see the same side of the moon every night. the dark side is always dark for us because we can't see it, but it doesn't mean that the sun never shines there. thus the dark side is only dark for us

Answer 9

The term the dark side of the moon is a bit of a misnomer, this has arisen because we only ever see the light side due to sunlight being reflected off the surface of the moon.

Due to the Moons rotational period and Orbital period being very similar, it keeps the same face pointing at the earth. So when the moon orbits in front of the earth ( relative to the sun) the dark side is actually facing the sun. The receive roughly equal amounts of sunlight during its orbital period.

Answer 10

The Moon has only one side that faces the Earth. The 'dark' side of the moon is the side that faces away from the Earth. Because the dark side of the Moon faces away from the Earth, to see it you have to travel to the Moon.