Wayne Burkhart$, age 12, of Montoursvv1lle, Penna., for h s question:

What makes the moon 'reflect sunlight?

We tend to take sunlight for granted, for after all it is an everyday event. But to understand it, we must first realize that it is tremendous energy pulsing across the vast domains of space at a sped of about 186,000 miles a second. When this speeding energy hits a solid surface, we get a sort of super duper collision.

In the collision, the wave lengths of the coldrless light are broken apart. Some are absorbed, depending upon the fit' face they hit. The rest are bounced back to be seen by our eyes as diflif erent colors, Some surfaces bounce back, or reflect more light than others. The dark surface of the moon reflects back only a little of the sunlight which falls upon it. It reflects out into space only seven percent of the daylight which falls upon it for our eyes to see.