Why are the temperatures of the earth and the moon so different?

On Thu, 10 Feb 2000 you wrote:

> Why are the temperatures of the earth and the moon so different ?

The main reason is that the Earth has an atmosphere, while the moon does
not. The Earth's atmosphere takes a long time to heat up during the day,
and is slow to cool off at night (thanks to the Greenhouse Effect). The
moon, on the other hand, has no atmosphere, and so the temperature in
direct sunlight warms up instantly to a few hundred degrees, and at night
can cool off very quickly!

Thanks for writing!

Sincerely,
Kurtis Williams

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