Full Earth
If anyone standing on the Moon were looking back toward Earth right now, they would see something similar to this: a full Earth blazing bright in the night sky. That's because the Moon is at its "new" phase, so it lines up between Earth and the Sun. It's nighttime for the lunar hemisphere that faces Earth, so it's dark there. But it's bathed in "earthshine" -- sunlight reflected off of Earth. As the crescent Moon moves into view in the evening sky early this week, we will see the effect of earthshine as a ghostly grey glow on the dark portion of the crescent Moon. This photo, snapped by Apollo astronauts during a trip to the Moon, shows Antarctica and Africa. [Credit: NASA] For more information, see our May 7 program.
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