What is the distance between the dark and light side of the moon?

Question

At the place where the dark side of the moon turns into the light side... how long does it take to go from dark to light? Is it a gradual changing? or is it a very sudden change as in a line of light?

Answer 1

On the moon, it is a fairly sharp line - if you were in the bottom of a meteor crater, light would hit the sides, and reflect down into the crater, fuzzing the line between light and dark, a bit, but it is really a fairly sharp line. In contrast, the Earth's terminator (the line between dark and light) is really fuzzy because of the Earth's atmosphere - light refracts around a bit, making the terminator quite broad - so it takes roughly a half hour from sunset to dark - at the midline of the US it is probably around 250 miles wide or so. where the moon's terminator is much sharper - if you were in a perfectly flat spot, you could see the line travel by. (much slower than the Earth, as it rotates once a month rather than once a day for the Earth!)

Answer 2

There is no distance between the light and dark side as there aren't two points. At one point, every part of the moon has been either light or dark. There is no distance in between.

Answer 3

To fill in some information: (definite, i comprehend that this technically isn't answering your questions) - the clarification that the excellent moon on March 19 would be a great moon is that the perigee and apogee distances of the moon adjustments slightly over an 18 365 days, 11 day and eight hour cycle. it extremely is definitely a saros era it is brought about with the help of the precession of the lunar nodes, the factors the place the moon's orbit crosses the airplane of the ecliptic. The moon's orbit is tilted at .5.21 tiers to the airplane of the ecliptic. a entire lunar eclipse and a entire photograph voltaic eclipse, including a entire annular photograph voltaic eclipse, happens in basic terms while the moon is the two finished or new on an identical time that the moon is at or close to to the element the place the moon's orbit crosses the ecliptic airplane. . there grew to become into yet another great-moon on Jan, 19, 1992, while the perigee of the moon grew to become into even closer at finished moon than the only on March 19. it extremely is via the fact the moon gets farther far off from the Earth with the help of three.8 centimeters (one million.fifty two inches) in line with 365 days. it extremely is the end results of the the slowing of the Earth's rotation value with the help of 0.0.5 seconds in line with 365 days in line with century, to compensate of the Earth's loss in angular momentum, the moon has to learn angular momentum, so the angular momentum of the Earth - Moon gadget is maintained with the help of the moon shifting farther far off from the Earth. there is yet another extra technical term, called the precession of the apsides, that's purely yet another term for the precession of the lunar nodes. An apside is an precis line that connects the factors of apogee and perigee (or perihelion and aphelion contained while it comes to the planets. Which geographic area of the moon which you notice illuminated as that's waxing and waning relies upon on the form of you region on earth. Wile crescent moon might properly be illuminated from one million to seven o'clock for somebody in New Orleans at 30 tiers n selection ninety tiers w longitude, An observer at -30 tiers south selection will see the crescent on the different area of the seen moon, on an identical time, taking into consideration the adjustments in time zone as properly as selection . moon. The "facets" of the moon are called the close to area and the a techniques-area. there is not any darkish-area. 0.5 of the moon is often illuminated different than while the moon is in eclipse.

Answer 4

In the macroscopic world there are no "sharp" lines. Everything is gradual if you look at it closely enough.
If the sun were a point of light of zero size, if the surface of the moon was a perfect absorber (so no reflections of sunlight) and if there were absolutly zero atmosphere the line would be very very very sharp. How sharp it isn't? ask an astronomer - I don't know.

Answer 5

There is practically no atmosphere on the moon, so the change from light to dark would be quite sudden. There is no ambient light - meaning no dusk or dawn - just day and night.

Answer 6

It really depends on your perception. You would see the sun rise just like it does on earth, except much more slowly. Atmospheric conditions, or the almost complete lack thereof, would mean that the first sign of dawn would probably either be seeing the very tip of the sun peak up over the horizon, or possibly the illumination of nearby mountain peaks.

Time-wise, the onset of sunlight would be much slower than it occurs on Earth because the moon rotates much more slowly.

Answer 7

It's a very sudden change. Imagine illuminating your yard at night with a huge lamp. Everything is either lit up by the lamp or in total darkness.

Answer 8

Once every rotation or about 27.5 days

as it goes around the earth, it subsequently rotates upon it's own axis once.