The moon is indeed one of the most beautiful objects in the night sky. Be it a supermoon or a no-moon day, the moon always leaves us in awe.
When we look up at the moon during the night, we see a light grey colour of the moon with some dark grey spots, and when we see the moon during the pre-dawn or pre-evening period, we see a faint and light shade of the moon surrounded by a blue sky.
During the full moon, the moon looks yellow, and on some rare occasions, it appears in the shade of orange. This is pretty confusing, and this might make you wonder, What is the colour of the moon?
Well, here’s your answer!
The general images of the moon that we see online and the images of the moon captured from space show that the moon is greyish in colour, and that’s what the actual colour of the moon is! The moon is grey in colour.
Let’s dive deeper into this.
Why is the moon grey in colour?
The surface of the moon appears grey due to oxygen, silicon, magnesium, iron, calcium, and aluminium. The darker rocks are made of pyroxene, and the lighter-coloured rocks are usually made of plagioclase feldspar. The large dark patches on the moon are called maria.
The maria are less reflective than the highlands of the moon; therefore, they appear darker. These patches are formed due to the flow of lava into the impact basins. The first volcanic eruptions occurred 4.2 billion years ago, and the youngest eruptions occurred about 50 million years ago. However, today there are no active volcanoes on the moon. This dark patch covers about 16% of the moon’s near side (the side visible from Earth).
The lighter part of the moon is called the lunar highlands. This part of the moon is more reflective, thus appearing lighter in colour.
Thus we can say the moon is grey.
Why does the moon appears yellow or orange sometimes?
Well, these colours occur due to the scattering of the light. We know that Earth has its atmosphere, and the atmosphere contains many particles. These particles scatter the light in every direction, and this is also the reason why the sky appears blue. We will discuss that some other day.
When the moon is low in the sky, the light from the moon passes through most of the atmosphere; the blue wavelength on the light spectrum scatters the most, and the red wavelength on the light spectrum doesn’t scatter, thus the moon appears yellow or orange.
It is also important to note that the moon doesn’t have its own light, but it reflects the light that comes from the sun!
We hope your queries are solved. Wishing you clear skies!
