Moonlight is also technically sunlight. It’s being reflected by the surface of the moon back onto Earth. If you were on the dark side of the moon while Earth was still visible on that side, I wonder how bright it would be lit up from light reflecting off Earth.
The “dark” side of the moon is a bit of a weird thing, both linguistically and for its tidally locked orbit ^^
The moon revolves around earth at the same speed it revolves around its axis. This “tidal locking” means that it is always showing the same “face” to the Earth, so that it doesn’t appear to be rotating from our perspective.
timelapse showing the precession of the moon
This doesn’t mean that one side is always dark and the other is exposed to the sun - just that instead of days, the moon has phases! So the situation of being “on the dark side of the moon” while the Earth is visible is not possible, but earthlight is very much a thing.
FYI - "dark side of the moon" refers to the far side of the moon (that never faces Earth). Dark here has the same meaning as in dark energy: "unknown."
I have no answer to your actual question, but would also be interested.
floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Just regular sunlight. The “night” sky might throw off your intuition, but no atmosphere = no sky
Kolanaki@pawb.social 1 day ago
Moonlight is also technically sunlight. It’s being reflected by the surface of the moon back onto Earth. If you were on the dark side of the moon while Earth was still visible on that side, I wonder how bright it would be lit up from light reflecting off Earth.
floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
The “dark” side of the moon is a bit of a weird thing, both linguistically and for its tidally locked orbit ^^ The moon revolves around earth at the same speed it revolves around its axis. This “tidal locking” means that it is always showing the same “face” to the Earth, so that it doesn’t appear to be rotating from our perspective. timelapse showing the precession of the moon This doesn’t mean that one side is always dark and the other is exposed to the sun - just that instead of days, the moon has phases! So the situation of being “on the dark side of the moon” while the Earth is visible is not possible, but earthlight is very much a thing.
antler@feddit.online 1 day ago
FYI - "dark side of the moon" refers to the far side of the moon (that never faces Earth). Dark here has the same meaning as in dark energy: "unknown."
I have no answer to your actual question, but would also be interested.
Kolanaki@pawb.social 1 day ago
Is there another way to describe the side that isn’t currently facing the sun? 🤔