why is the moon white?

Answer 1

The moon is white because of the rock colour it has, and the chemicals play a good part in its colour.

Answer 2

There are a couple of things which might cause this.

Color vision is not very well understood. It is known that the eye and brain try to adjust the colors you see to correct for the color of the light shining on it. That is why grass looks green even when you see it under the red light of sunset. When you look at the Moon during the day, your eye sees the blue background of the sky, and your brain thinks that the light is blue, and (incorrectly) figures out what color the Moon must actually be to look the way it does under blue light. When you look at it at night, the brain has more trouble since it has no way of guessing what color the light is. This might account for the apparent color difference.

Another possibility, which is certainly part of it, is that the color difference is due to skylight. When you look at the Moon during the day, you see the moonlight, plus all the blue sunlight which is scattered by the atmosphere between the Moon and you. At night, the atmosphere doesn't have any sunlight to scatter.

David Palmer
for Ask an Astrophysicist

Answer 3

We know that the sun is bright in the day (far too bright to look at) and it's a white sort of colour. At sunrise and sunset it goes orange and red.
So too with the Moon. It isn't so bright because we see it by reflected sunlight, but it's still silvery white when it's high in the sky and dull yellow orange when near the horizon.
The reason for this is due to the Earth's atmosphere. The gasses in this are clear and colourless, but air contains many tiny specks of dust. We don't normally notice these, but when the sun or Moon are near the horizon, the light has to pass through a very wide path through the atmosphere. The nature of the dust particles causes blue light to be scattered away sideways, and lets the red light get through, so we see a more Orangey-red colour.
At noon the Sun is high in the sky, and the light comes straight down through the relatively thin layer of atmosphere and not much scattering occurs so the Sun is bright white. But, the blue light scattering sideways is what gives the sky its blue colour.
When the moon is high, it appears silvery white. We don't notice the faint blue light in the sky, but Astronomers prefer to photograph the stars near new moon, or when it has set becuse that faint light fogs their film a bit.
So, the yellow of the moon/sun and the blue of the sky have the same cause.
Phew, I`ll have to lie down now :-)

Answer 4

It isn t actually white.The moon does nt have any light of it s own.It only appeares that way because the grayish white dust of the moon surfeses reflecs the light of the sun as such a way to appear white to the human eye !However the light of the sun is white, and when it hurts that surfes, it makes it look whitish.You know that white light is made up of the 7 colours of the rainbow.When earth enters the earths s atmosphere, the atmosphere acts as prism and splits up the light, this why we see colour on our planet but there is no atmosphere on the moon to break up the light...that is why it apppeares white!

Answer 5

Its actually a dull grey colour, which you can see more easily on the darker portions of the moon. A beach can also look white in the distance under bright sunlight but close up the sand may look more yellow. Its because the light being reflected by the moon is so bright compared to the black sky around it that our eyes can't distinguish the colour very clearly.

Answer 6

Some time its blue too -

The most obvious meaning of blue moon is when the moon (not necessarily a full moon) appears to a casual observer to be unusually bluish, which is a rare event. The effect can be caused by smoke or dust particles in the atmosphere, such as happened after forest fires in Sweden in 1950 and Canada in 1951 and, notably, after the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883, which caused the moon to appear blue for nearly two years.

Answer 7

The dust which covers the moon reflects pretty much all light, so the white light from the sun gets reflected pretty much as white light, making the moon appear white. It is actually a greyish colour when seen in ambient light, but if you shine a torch on a light grey wall in the dark you will find that it also appears white.

Answer 8

It isn't actually white- the moon doesn't have any light of it's own,. it only appears that way because they grayish white dust of the moons surface (and it is that colour because of the materials it is composed of) reflects the light of the sun in such a way as to appear white to the human eye.

Answer 9

The moon appears white.

You know that white light is made up of the 7 colors of the rainbow.

when earth enters the earth's atmosphere the atmosphere acts as a prism and splits up the light, this is why we see color on our planet.

But there is no atmosphere on the moon to break up the light. thats why it appears white .

Answer 10

the Moon is not really white, it's kind of gray-brown.

however the light of the sun is white, and when it hits that surface, it makes it look whitish.