Are there lights on the moon?

[xyzzy@bok]

And why?
see recent photo http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/answerbok/

[Caladon]

No of course not. Im hoping you are younger than, say 10, otherwise your education and intellect worries me! The Moon has no eletrcial power...therefore no lights. It does not emit light either. It merely deflects the Suns light and reflects it onto the earth. The different contrasts of light, as seen on the link, are due to depth of the soil and crators.

[sddsddean]

A measure of an objects reflectiveness is its albedo. 1 is perfect mirror(which at present doesn't exist) and 0 is absolute darkness. The Moons overall albedo is 0.07 so it reflects 7% of the light falling upon it. The Earths albedo is 0.39.

[xyzzy@bok]

Aha, a glimmer of hope; thankyou sddsddean for not joining the childish, insulting poopoo trend and indeed decimating it by 50%, more really as your argument is constructive. - now what about those 'lights', solar panels maybe? - bearing in mind that the moon people have been going to and fro in shuttles for 30 odd years now...

[sddsddean]

I have been following the 'Space Race' since I was a nipper, so take a great interest in it. As far as I know, no experiments have been left on the moon which emit light. However, there are loads of bits of hardware up there covered in bacofoil which could reflect the light in the right circumstances. The only purpose built reflector is an array of corner cubes (a special prism which reflects light in the same direction it arrived) which was left on the moon so that scientists could accurately measure the distance to the moon using laser light, to decide if the moon was coming toward us or not.

[xyzzy@bok]

nice to know an expert. so look at my foto n say what you think the bright dots are 'n them polar tracks..

[sddsddean]

Well the photo is a bit blurred, so I'm not sure what you are getting at. Do you mean the bright bits round the edge of the moon? Assuming the photo was taken on Earth (as opposed to in space) it could be caused by chromatic aberration due to refraction in the earths atmosphere. (Or I could be totally wrong!!)

[craig_edward]

isn't this the same wiseguy who put loads of postings up on AB a while ago, and whos now got his imitation AB site on yahoo???? why come back???

[Please: let's just ask and answer questions. - AB Editor]

[robber1]

Why not, you dont own the web site.Thank God.

[Please: let's just ask and answer questions. - AB Editor]

[archbishop]

Uh Oh.

[archbishop]

As far as I can see (further than the moon) this is a perfectly reasonable question. sddsddean's answer is excellent but obviously craig_edward has an axe to grind.


[Please: let's just ask and answer questions. - AB Editor]

[archbishop]

AB Ed - Sorry.

[xyzzy@bok]

thanx for all your help and comments.. the question is now closed. :-)