An astronaut is standing in the Sea of Tranquility during what on earth is called a total solar eclipse. They are looking in the direction of the sun. What they see is:?
A. The surface of the moon, illuminated by earth light.
B. The night side of the earth, occluding the sun.
C. The surface of the moon, illuminated only by starlight.
D. The surface of the moon, illuminated by the sun.
E. The sun.
F. The day side of the earth, with a small circular shadow moving quickly over it.
G. The night side of the earth. The sun is somewhere else entirely.
H. A starry sky. Neither the sun, the earth, or the surface of the moon is in the field of view.
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9 Answers
I am going to say A, since I do not know if the place is on the “dark side” of the moon.
Right before (and after) the eclipse, the sun will be down behind the moon, and they’ll see a fully sun-illuminated Earth, and light from that and the stars illuminating the moon a bit.
As the eclipse begins, they’ll see the shadow of the moon starting to pass over Earth, darkening it. When the eclipse is full, the full circle of the moon’s shadow will cover part of, but not the entire, Earth. The moon’s shadow is not as large as Earth, because the moon is smaller than Earth, the sun is much larger than both, and the distances between the sun and the earth/moon is great, so the size of the shadow is about the size of the moon relative to Earth.
The Sea of Tranquility faces Earth at all times.
So F is the most accurate answer.
F.
There has never been a moonwalk when the moon was “New”. I would imagine it would be wildly dangerous, and doubt NASA would allow it until proper lighting could be developed.
The trick there is it would be dark for 14 continuous Earth days.
There is a solar eclipse so the moon is between the Earth and the sun. The Sea of Tranquility always faces the Earth but we are told the astronaut is looking in the direction of the sun so all he can see is the moon as the sun is hidden behind it. The solar eclipse doesn’t blot out the entire Earth as @Zaku says so the moon will be illuminated by Earth light. The answer therefore is A.
@flutherother You are right. It’s always a good idea to read the question before answering. I never learn. HA!
Oh good. I was starting to think I was being gaslit with everyone else answering ‘F’.
Oh, yeah, I overlooked the part about looking in the direction of the sun, assuming the question was about everything they could see, being allowed to look around. Maybe the answer is I – they see the surface of the moon and their feet (if they’re standing up), illuminated by sunlight reflected off Earth, and starlight, and any light source they have.
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