• Question: is the moon freezing or boiling

    Asked by anon-245770 to Sam, Samantha, Nicol, Lori-Ann, Liam, David on 11 Mar 2020.
    • Photo: David Sobral

      David Sobral answered on 11 Mar 2020:

      It can be both, depending on where you are on the Moon 🙂

      It can get really boiling and over 100 degrees Celsius when the Sun is shinning on its surface, but for the other side of the Moon it can be as cold as negative 170 degrees Celsius, so *definitely freezing*!

    • Photo: Lori-Ann Foley

      Lori-Ann Foley answered on 11 Mar 2020:

      The parts of the moon where the sun is shining can get up to 127 C – so boiling! But when the sun goes down the temperature falls and can go down to minus 173 C – so freezing! There is such a big change because the moon doesn’t have an atmosphere like Earth and the atmosphere helps the temperature stay more stable and not change so much.

    • Photo: Samantha Faircloth

      Samantha Faircloth answered on 11 Mar 2020:

      Hello Elib, I study the Moon and can confirm that it can be really cold (below freezing!) in regions that haven’t got any Sun and it can be really hot (above boiling temperature) when the Sun is shining. There is no atmosphere, so heat can’t be retained when the Sun goes in and there is no protection from the Sun when its shining! At the south pole of the Moon, there is a large ice sheet because it never receives any Sun : -)

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