# About the sun and moon

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-sun-and-moon/103730>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 15, 2002, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-sun-and-moon/103730 "2002-04-15T13:54:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Summers\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@Summers\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Summers_Son)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2002, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-sun-and-moon/103730/1 "2002-04-15T13:54:18Z")

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I sent this question to cecil ages ago, but i guess he doesnt consider it to be worthy of an awnser _shakes fist at cecil_, but its buged me since i was a kid, so i guess i’ll let the teeming millions awnser it.  
Okay, first of: assuming the colour means light, and more colours means whiter, and all colours mean white.  
Looking directly at the sun, it appears Yellow, probally due to the atomsphere, in space i assume it would appear white (all colour)  
But looking at the moon, it appears grey / white. but if the moon shining is only light reflected from the sun, why does it appear whiter (more colours / light) than directly at the sun?  
Shouldnt the moon absorb some light instead of giving back more light than the sun appears to have?  
-Mikey:cool:

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**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2002, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-sun-and-moon/103730/2 "2002-04-15T23:37:42Z")

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Not really. White is not really _all colors_ as much as the right balance of some colors and the Sun’s light is more on the red side than anything else. The moon reflects better the blue and worse the red so the color balance you get is different.

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**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2002, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-the-sun-and-moon/103730/3 "2002-04-15T23:52:44Z")

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Oops, [double thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=109616).

Sorry I didn’t catch it earlier, **sailor**.