question: Why is the moon white eventhough it is reflecting the sun's light, which appears red/orange?
comment: The moon is actually a dark grey color, it only looks white from here due to the contrast with the infinite blackness of space. The sun emits light at all wavelengths and peaks in the yellow-green, but it can appear red or orange at sunset since the atmosphere is screening out blue. At noon it's definitely white, but don't stare at it.
passages: Planetshine has also been observed elsewhere in the Solar System. In particular, the "Cassini" space probe used Saturn's shine to image portions of the planet's moons, even when they do not reflect direct sunlight.
  
  Section::::Earthshine.
  
  Earthshine is visible earthlight reflected from the Moon's night side. It is also known as the Moon's "ashen glow" or as "the new Moon with the old Moon in her arm".
   Earthshine is most readily visible from a few nights before until a few nights after a new moon, during the (waxing or waning) crescent phase. When the lunar phase is new as viewed from Earth, Earth would appear nearly fully sunlit from the Moon. Sunlight is reflected from Earth to the night side of the Moon. The night side appears to glow faintly, and the entire disk of the Moon is dimly illuminated.
   Section::::Visual presentation.:The Moon.
  
  Earth's Moon is a grey disc in the sky with cratering visible to the naked eye. It spans, depending on its exact location, 29-33 arcminutes - which is about the size of a thumbnail at arm's length, and is readily identified. Over 27.3 days, the moon goes through a full cycle of lunar phases. People can generally identify phases within a few days by looking at the moon. Unlike stars and most planets, the light reflected from the moon is bright enough to be seen during the day. (Venus can sometimes be seen even after sunrise.)
   Moonlight
  
  Moonlight consists of mostly sunlight (with little earthlight) reflected from the parts of the Moon's surface where the Sun's light strikes.
  
  Section::::Illumination.
  
  The intensity of moonlight varies greatly depending on its phase, but even the full Moon typically provides only about 0.05–0.1 lux illumination. When the full Moon is at perigee and viewed around upper culmination from the tropics, the illuminance can reach up to 0.32 lux. From Earth, the apparent magnitude of the full Moon is only about that of the Sun.
   Earthlight (astronomy)
  
  Earthlight is the diffuse reflection of sunlight reflected from Earth's surface and clouds. Earthshine (an example of planetshine), also known as the Moon's ashen glow, is the dim illumination of the otherwise dark side of the Moon by this indirect sunlight. Earthlight on the Moon during the waxing crescent is called "the old Moon in the new Moon's arms", while that during the waning crescent is called "the new Moon in the old Moon's arms".
   The key to a blue moon is having lots of particles slightly wider than the wavelength of red light (0.7 micrometer)—and no other sizes present. It is rare, but volcanoes sometimes produce such clouds, as do forest fires. Ash and dust clouds thrown into the atmosphere by fires and storms usually contain a mixture of particles with a wide range of sizes, with most smaller than 1 micrometer, and they tend to scatter blue light. This kind of cloud makes the moon turn red; thus red moons are far more common than blue moons.
  
  Section::::Blue moons between 2009 and 2021.
   New moon
  
  In astronomy, the new moon is the first lunar phase, when the Moon and Sun have the same ecliptic longitude. At this phase, the lunar disk is not visible to the unaided eye, except when silhouetted during a solar eclipse. Daylight outshines the earthlight that dimly illuminates the new moon. The actual phase is usually a very thin crescent.
   The amount of refracted light depends on the amount of dust or clouds in the atmosphere; this also controls how much light is scattered. In general, the dustier the atmosphere, the more that other wavelengths of light will be removed (compared to red light), leaving the resulting light a deeper red color. This causes the resulting coppery-red hue of the Moon to vary from one eclipse to the next. Volcanoes are notable for expelling large quantities of dust into the atmosphere, and a large eruption shortly before an eclipse can have a large effect on the resulting color.
   As seen from Mars, Deimos would have an angular diameter of no more than 2.5 minutes (sixty minutes make one degree), one twelfth of the width of the Moon as seen from Earth, and would therefore appear almost star-like to the naked eye. At its brightest ("full moon") it would be about as bright as Venus is from Earth; at the first- or third-quarter phase it would be about as bright as Vega. With a small telescope, a Martian observer could see Deimos's phases, which take 1.2648 days (Deimos's synodic period) to run their course.
   Section::::Crescent Moon.
  
  During the first two weeks, the Moon is called 'crescent' (when the illuminated portion increases) while it is 'falling' for the next two weeks.
  
  For two weeks, the crescent Moon wanes before and waxes after new moon, or "change of Moon". The Moon when other than crescent or dark, is called a gibbous, waxing before and waning after full moon.
  
  Section::::Other items of interest.
  
  Because the Moon is so bright, it is especially interesting to see objects "superimposed" on it. One particular point of interest is an ISS (International Space Station) transit.
  
  Section::::See also.
   Among the most prominent features of the Moon's sky is Earth. Earth's angular diameter (1.9°) is four times the Moon's as seen from Earth, although because the Moon's orbit is eccentric, Earth's apparent size in the sky varies by about 5% either way (ranging between 1.8° and 2.0° in diameter). Earth shows phases, just like the Moon does for terrestrial observers. The phases, however, are opposite; when the terrestrial observer sees the full Moon, the lunar observer sees a "new Earth", and vice versa. Earth's albedo is three times as high as that of the Moon (due in part to its whitish cloud cover), and coupled with the wider area, the full Earth glows over 50 times brighter than the full Moon at zenith does for the terrestrial observer. This Earth light reflected on the Moon's un-sunlit half is bright enough to be visible from Earth, even to the unaided eye – a phenomenon known as earthshine.
   Moonbows are much fainter than solar rainbows, due to the smaller amount of light reflected from the surface of the moon. Because the light is usually too faint to excite the cone color receptors in human eyes, it is difficult for the human eye to discern colors in a moonbow. As a result, a moonbow often appears to be white. However, the colors in a moonbow do appear in long exposure photographs.
  
  Moonbows have been mentioned at least since Aristotle's "Meteorology" (circa 350 BCE).
  
  Section::::Viewing.
   The phase curve of the Earth has not been determined as accurately as those for Mercury and Venus because its integrated brightness is difficult to measure from the surface. Instead of direct observation, earthshine reflected from the portion of the Moon not lit by the Sun has served as a proxy. A few direct measurements of the Earth's luminosity have been obtained with the EPOXI spacecraft. While they do not cover much of the phase curve they reveal a rotational light curve caused by the transit of dark oceans and bright land masses across the hemisphere. P. Goode and colleagues at Big Bear Solar Observatory have measured the earthshine and T. Livengood of NASA analyzed the EPOXI data.
   As this supermoon was also a blue moon (the second full moon in a calendar month), it was referred to as a "super blue blood moon"; "blood" refers to the typical red color of the Moon during a total lunar eclipse. This coincidence last occurred on December 30, 1982 for the eastern hemisphere, and otherwise before that on March 31, 1866. The next occurrence will be on January 31, 2037, one metonic cycle (19 years) later.
  
  Section::::Background.
   Many factors can affect the appearance of the Moon during a lunar eclipse. The Moon's path through the Earth's umbra is important, but so too are the current conditions of the Earth's atmosphere. While the Earth's shadow blocks any direct light from striking the Moon during a lunar eclipse, some light is refracted through the Earth's atmosphere giving the Moon a red hue.
   Landover possesses eight moons, each one a different color: white, peach, pale mauve, burnt rose, sea green, beryl, turquoise, and jade. Two of the moons, peach and pale mauve, are visible during daylight hours, with the rest being only visible after dusk. The moons rise and set like normal satellites. During certain rare times of the year all eight moons are visible in the night sky at once. About every other month there is a new-moon phase, when some of the eight moons are below the horizon and the rest are in their dark phase, leaving the nighttime sky lit only by the stars.
   Like most atmospheric optical phenomena, rainbows can be caused by light from the Sun, but also from the Moon. In case of the latter, the rainbow is referred to as a lunar rainbow or moonbow. They are much dimmer and rarer than solar rainbows, requiring the Moon to be near-full in order for them to be seen. For the same reason, moonbows are often perceived as white and may be thought of as monochrome. The full spectrum is present, however, but the human eye is not normally sensitive enough to see the colours. Long exposure photographs will sometimes show the colour in this type of rainbow.
   On July 16–17, 2015, DSCOVR took a series of images showing the Moon engaged in a transit of Earth. The images were taken between 19:50 and 00:45 UTC. The animation was composed of monochrome images taken in different color filters at 30-second intervals for each frame, resulting in a slight color fringing for the Moon in each finished frame. Due to its position at Sun–Earth , DSCOVR will always see the Moon illuminated and will always see its far side when it passes in front of Earth.
   Among the most prominent features of the Moon's sky is Earth. Earth's angular diameter (1.9°) is four times the Moon's as seen from Earth, although because the Moon's orbit is eccentric, Earth's apparent size in the sky varies by about 5% either way (ranging between 1.8° and 2.0° in diameter). Earth shows phases, just like the Moon does for terrestrial observers. The phases, however, are opposite; when the terrestrial observer sees the full Moon, the lunar observer sees a "new Earth", and vice versa. Earth's albedo is three times as high as that of the Moon (due in part to its whitish cloud cover), and coupled with the wider area, the full Earth glows over 50 times brighter than the full Moon at zenith does for the terrestrial observer. This Earth light reflected on the Moon's un-sunlit half is bright enough to be visible from Earth, even to the unaided eye – a phenomenon known as earthshine.
   Some of the most spectacular moons come during the full moon phase near sunset or sunrise. The moon on the horizon benefits from the moon illusion which makes it appear larger. The light reflected from the moon traveling through the atmosphere also colors the moon orange and/or red.
  
  Section::::Visual presentation.:Comets.
   Section::::Legacy.
   Another interesting phenomenon visible with the naked eye is Earthshine. Best visible shortly before or after new a moon (during the waning and waxing crescent phases respectively), Earthshine is the faint glow of the non-illuminated (night) side of the Moon caused by sunlight reflecting off the surface of Earth (which would appear nearly full to an observer situated on the Moon at this time) and onto the night side of the Moon. By the time the Moon reaches first its quarter however, the sunlight illuminated portion of the Moon becomes far too bright for Earthshine to be seen with the naked eye, however it can still be observed telescopically.
   The most literal meaning of "blue moon" is when the moon (not necessarily a full moon) appears to a casual observer to be unusually bluish, which is a rare event. The effect can be caused by smoke or dust particles in the atmosphere, as has happened after forest fires in Sweden and Canada in 1950 and 1951, and after the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883, which caused the moon to appear blue for nearly two years. Other less potent volcanoes have also turned the moon blue. People saw blue moons in 1983 after the eruption of the El Chichón volcano in Mexico, and there are reports of blue moons caused by Mount St. Helens in 1980 and Mount Pinatubo in 1991. In the Antarctic diary of Robert Falcon Scott for July 11, 1911 his entry says, "... the air thick with snow, and the moon a vague blue". On that date the moon phase would have looked full.
   The Sun looks the same from the Moon as it does from Earth's orbit, somewhat brighter than it does from the Earth's surface, and colored pure white, due to the lack of atmospheric scattering and absorption.
   As this supermoon was also a wolf moon (the first full moon in a calendar year), it was referred to as a "super blood wolf moon"; blood refers to the typical red color of the Moon during a total lunar eclipse. This was the last total lunar eclipse until May 2021.
  
presuppositions: The moon is white. The moon is white.
corrections: The moon is dark grey but appears white because of the contrast against the color of black space. The moon is a dark grey color and appears white due to its contrast with the blackness of space.
raw_presuppositions: The moon is white. The moon is white.
raw_corrections: The moon is dark grey but appears white because of the contrast against the color of black space. The moon is a dark grey color and appears white due to its contrast with the blackness of space.