How does the sky look from the moon?
In 1969, Neil Armstrong, who was the commander of Apollo 11, took this photo on the lunar surface. Against the backdrop of the lunar module in the far distance, experimental devices and astronaut Buzz Aldrin come in sight.
Sunlight is scattered as it passes through the atmosphere of the Earth. As blue color has a shorter wavelength and thus is scattered more strongly, the sky appears blue. However, as the moon has no atmosphere, its sky appears black even when the sun is up.
On the moon, the stars are visible even during the day!
However, the Apollo astronauts are said to have been nearly unable to see the stars. Because the lunar surface is much brighter than the Earth’s as it is constantly bathed in sunlight, their helmets were mounted with an advanced sun visor that provided powerful protection for their eyes. It would have been difficult to see the stars through this sun visor.
The Earth viewed from the moon
This photo was taken from the lunar module of Apollo 11, the first manned mission to land on the moon, about 50 years ago. The Earth is visible beyond the moon.
From the moon, the Earth appears to always stay in the same position. It rotates in one position in its 24-hour cycle and has phases just like the moon viewed from the Earth. The Earth viewed from the moon is four times larger than the moon viewed from the Earth. The “full Earth” is brighter than the full moon by about 15 times.
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