Plan B Forum

China Lands a Probe on the Dark Side of the Moon




Honestly, I was getting really sick and tired of all the news about The Wall....

Did you know that the dark side of the Moon actually gets more sunlight than the Earth-facing side?

datsunaholic wrote:Did you know that the dark side of the Moon actually gets more sunlight than the Earth-facing side?

Reference please.

"Dark side" is of course a misnomer in that it is only dark in the sense that we can't see it unless we happen to be one of the couple of dozen astronauts who have been in the area. Over a year, the dark side receives directly just as much sunlight as the 'light' side except during a lunar eclipse when the earth's shadow prevents some sunlight from reaching the surface of the moon. There are, generally speaking, a couple of lunar eclipses every year so there are a couple of occasions when the 'light' side receives a little less sunlight. And, arguably,the 'light' side receives more because it gets sunlight reflected from earth. I think (but I have seen no numbers to prove it) that the excess reflected light the 'light' side gets more than compensates for the losses from eclipses. I can't do the math (or rather I'm too lazy) but there is another factor which might help your point in that when the 'dark' side is receiving light it is approximately 500,000 miles closer to the sun (on average over the course of a year) than when the 'light' side is receiving light directly. That's about 0.5% closer; as there is an inverse square law (light vs distance) that equates to about 1% more light. That might be enough to make your case.

uh oh....,
...it seems that we have a chink in our armour....

datsunaholic wrote:Did you know that the dark side of the Moon actually gets more sunlight than the Earth-facing side?

Bit long for a song title, that. But if you hum a few bars....