• Question: why dosent the moon glow up the sky and the sun dose?

    Asked by milli to Hitesh, Hywel, Mae, Nik, Tiffany on 14 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Tiffany Taylor

      Tiffany Taylor answered on 14 Jun 2012:

      Because the moon does not produce it’s own light whereas the sun does. The sun is just a star, like any other star you see in the sky, only it’s closer to our planet. It produces loads of light and heat, because it is producing MASSIVE amounts of energy which it gets rid of in the form of light and heat. The moon is just a big lump of rock in space, it is not producing energy and so it does not glow. It looks bright in the night sky because it is just reflecting light from the sun.

    • Photo: Hywel Owen

      Hywel Owen answered on 14 Jun 2012:

      The sun is big enough that gravity presses all the hydrogen inside it and makes it fuse into helium. The energy released from this reaction is what makes the sun shine.

      The moon is much smaller, so it doesn’t have this going on. The light you see from it is reflected, usually from the sun (when the sun is in the right location), but sometimes also from the Earth.

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