What fraction of the moon is always lit?

In: Moons

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Answer

Except during a lunar eclipse, of course...

The moon is always facing the sun. It takes about 27.3 days to orbit earth and about 27.3 days to make one full rotation. So one entire side of the moon, even though sometimes it doesn't look like it from Earth, is always lit by the sun. Of course, during a lunar eclipse, the Earth will block some of the sunlight.

Clarification

The short answer, "half" is correct. The sun illuminates half of any sphere. From Earth, we see different portions of the moon because it is revolving around the Earth. Place a bare bulb in a dark room, hold a ball in your hand, and turn around. As you rotate, and the ball revolves around you, you will see the ball go through phases, just as the moon does. Now, have a friend stand near the lamp. He will always see the half of the moon ball that is lit. Another friend, standing beyond you (so that the lamp is hidden by you), will always see the dark side of the moon.

Pedantic note: Since the sun is larger than the moon, very slightly more than half of the moon is lit. *see discussion

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First answer by Redbeard. Last edit by Dfoofnik. Contributor trust: 27 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 72 [recommend question]

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