Fact #180
Strange but true
From the Moon, Earth is about four times wider than the Moon looks from here and roughly forty times brighter, and it goes through phases opposite to ours.
When we have a new moon, they have a full Earth, which is why the dark part of a young crescent glows: it is lit by a full Earth. A full Earth would cast sharp shadows and give enough light to read by, and it would be the only thing in the lunar sky that ever moved — the clouds turning under it, once a day.
Source: NASA Moon facts (opens in a new tab) · checked Sep 2026