Earthshine on the Moon reflects oceans, clouds, and continents. Spectroscopic studies detect changes in reflected light. This allows observations of Earth’s climate patterns from afar. Lunar reflectivity varies seasonally with Earth’s cloud cover. It’s a natural mirror of planetary health. Observing this light helps study Earth-Moon interactions. Future telescopes may exploit Earthshine for monitoring exoplanetary analogs.
It matters for astronomy and climate observation techniques.
It also inspires methods to detect life on exoplanets. Earth’s appearance as seen from the Moon is a learning tool.
Earth’s reflected light can subtly change lunar color visible to telescopes.
NASA [nasa.gov]