Does it ever get dark on the moon, after all it is our source of light at night?

Answer 1

The sun reflects off of the moon at night. That's how we get our moonlight. But the moon itself is dark. Man you are sexy!

Answer 2

There are some good answers on this.

The moon rotates on it's axis every 29.5 days and is in synchronus rotation with the earth. That means we alsways see the same side of the moon all the time from earth. The reason it doesn't spin faster or slower than that is because of tidal action which earth has on the moon, basically gravitational resistance to it's spin.

Because the moon spins around the earth and always faces earth, there is no permanent "dark side". The side we don't see, does receive sunlight, just like the side we see. This is why the phases of the moon have a shifting terminator of night each day.

To illustrate this, place a lamp in the center of a darkened room. Place a basketball about 3 feet away from the lamp and place a softball with an "X" written on it facing the basketball. Now move the softball around the basketball slowly but always keeping the X pointed towards the basketball. Observe that the light from the lamp will eventually light every side of the softball depending on it's orbital position. That's how it works.

The moon is our main source of light at night, but as others have pointed out, it's only a reflected source. It produces no light of it's own. The lunar dust is lightly colored and highly reflective, in a way like snow.

Answer 3

There is a darks side of the moon... the one we do not see during quarters and also during moon eclipses, when Earth is between Moon and Sun. And Moon is not a source of light, it only reflects the light coming from the Sun. Moon is simply a planet, with a temperature lower than the Earth's, while the Sun has a much higher temperature (a few thousand Kelvin), due to which it radiates energy (light and heat).

Answer 4

The moon is a rotating sphere. The half that is facing away from the sun is in the dark. A person on the moon will experience a bright daytime when facing the sun and a dark nighttime when facing away from the sun. The moon rotates a lot slower than the Earth does. On the moon daytime lasts two weeks and nighttime lasts two weeks. This is exactly in synch with the revolution of the moon around the Earth, so that we are always looking at the same half of the moon. Anything on the far side from the Earth will never rotate around for us to see it.

Answer 5

The moon has days and nights, just like the earth.
Except a lunar day is about 2 earth weeks long. Every part of the moon has night for 2 weeks, then daytime for 2 weeks.

It provides light to us because it reflects sunlight (when its at the right angle to do so). When the moon is between the earth and the sun the daylit side is facing away from the earth and we don't have the moon in our night sky. It is NOT a source of light the way the sun is, the moon DOES not shine with its own light, it simply reflects sunlight (like a very dim mirror) to the earth.

Answer 6

The moon is a ball just like the earth is. It is not a source of light itself, but simply reflects light from the sun.

The moon has sunrise and sunset just like we do, every 24 hours. When it's dark, it's very dark, and the temperature goes down hundreds of degrees below zero. When it's daylight, the temperature is very high, but the sky is black, with a giant white sun and a blue Earth in it. There are no clouds.

Answer 7

yes. it's explained easily by the phases of the moon. imagine you are holding a globe in the beam of a flashlight. solidily attached to this globe is a smaller globe. ie, they don't move relative to each other. (attach a tennis ball to a basketball using a large nail) what happens as you rotate in a 360 degree circle holding these two, connected globes, in front of a beam of light? both will be illuminated by the sun at a perpendicular angle. the moon has a day and a night just like the earth does. thats why we see phases of the moon. if we were standing on the moon, we'd see phases of the earth. it's hard to explain but it's true. google apollo 11 pictures and it might help you understand the science behind it.
by the way, sunlight reflecting off of the moon is the reason the moon "glows".

Answer 8

It doesn't "get dark", in the sense you mean it, but half the moon is dark all the time. Because of the moon's orbit around the earth synchronizes with our own orbit, we see the same side of the moon facing us all the time; So, actually, half the moon is in sunshine permanently, and the back side of the moon is in perpetual darkness. We never saw it at all, until we sent a satellite or space ship around the moon for the first time in the late 50's or early 60's.

Answer 9

Yes, That is what happens when there is a lunar eclipse. This is when the Earth comes between the sun and the moon and blocks all or most of the light that goes to the moon.

Also, when the moon is directly between the Earth and the sun, half of the moon, the part that faces us is dark.

It all has to do with the umbra, the penumbra, and eclipses.

Answer 10

Nope. There is actually no such thing as the Dark Side of The Moon; it just looks that way to us. It's also not exactly our source of light, but rather light reflecting from the Sun off the Moon.