Anita Grier, age 10, of Charlotte, North Carolina, for her question:

Is the moon really orange?

First let's think about a flashlight and what it looks like when you shine it in the dark. It makes a small round circle of light on this object and that object. And if you look carefully at that bright patch of light, it seems to be orange or yellowish orange. Of course we know that these golden patches do not belong to the dark objects. They just look that color because of the light shining upon them.

The moon looks golden because it shines with golden light reflected from the sun. Sometimes it looks like an orange pumpkin because reddish tones are added by dust and debris in the air. Actually, the lunar landscape is not orange or yellow or shining gold. It is made of rocks, rather dull drab rocks of greys and greyish browns. From the earth, the sunshine on the moon looks somewhat like a giant flashlight. The sunshine adds that bright golden glow to the scenery.