Last week, experts predicted that a ‘da Vinci glow’ would be visible around the new moon on May 19. In this week’s edition of Science for All, we look at what it is and why it is named after the Renaissance artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci.
The da Vinci glow is a phenomenon that happens close to sunset. On some days, when a crescent moon is on the horizon, the outline of the full moon is visible right after the sun sets, and the sky is dark but not completely dark. This glow is also called earthshine, since it occurs due to light reflected from the earth and not the sun. According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), earthshine makes night on the moon 50-times brighter than a full-moon night on the earth.
That is, earthshine is the sunlight first reflected by the earth’s surface, and then it’s reflected by the moon before it reaches our eyes. Since it is reflected twice, it is dimmer than the visible part of the moon and thus appears as a faint glow. This is the da Vinci glow.
