Earthlight

moon · light · space · earth

Sunlight bounces twice. Earthlight happens when sunlight hits Earth first, bounces off our clouds and land, and then travels all the way to the Moon. It's like the Moon is being lit by a giant mirror made of Earth itself.

You can see it. On nights when the Moon is a thin crescent, you can actually see the dark part of the Moon glowing faintly with a ghostly gray light. This spooky glow is earthlight, sometimes called the ashen light.

The Moon becomes a mirror. The unlit part of the Moon only gets its light from Earth. Without earthlight, that part would be completely invisible and black, but instead it shimmers softly in the night sky.

Clouds make it brighter. When Earth has more clouds, more sunlight bounces back into space, making earthlight stronger and the Moon's dark side glow even more noticeably.

Three bounces of light. The journey is amazing: sunlight leaves the Sun, hits Earth, bounces off clouds and oceans, travels to the Moon, and bounces off the Moon's surface to reach your eyes on Earth.