The theory of "cold light" ?

Could someone explain what this "cold light" is that gets emitted from the moon?

It doesn't seem at all similar to the warmth and light from the sun, which are easily blocked by shade or cloud cover, because when it is cloudy or you are in the shade, the night feels just as cold.

Who discovered this "cold light" theory of physics?

Thanks!

Captain Obvious

Cold light is essentially light without an infra red component to it.  While all frequencies of light give off some heat - some frequencies are hotter than others.

Wien's law demonstrates this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wien%27s_Law

"Wien's displacement law is a law of physics that states that there is an inverse relationship between the wavelength of the peak of the emission of a black body and its temperature."

So "cold light" - while the light is technically not actually cold - is light coming from the higher frequencies only.

That law is around since 1893 and I'm sure that physicists before that time also knew that different frequencies of light had temperatures.

And seeing as how the moon's apparent color is much more bluish than reddish, I can accept that.  Though you guys better at least accept that the moon is at least not a *light* per-se, but perhaps glowing brightly.  Similar to bioluminescence.

Not to mention, the sun's rays are more than just visible light.  UV and IR light comes in as well.  It's the UV light that gives you cancer and burns your skin, and I would assume it's the IR that really does all the warming.
Stupid assumption?  Probably.  But I'm not offering anything scientific, just what I see and trying to explain what I know.

If the moon were emitting "cold light" in the fashion you describe, i.e. black body radiation, the peak wavelength for light would be close to the ultraviolet part of the spectrum, meaning it would be possible to get a tan at night, not to mention skin cancer. Funny how thats never happened.

Basically what DragonXero said

human eyes wouldn't be able to see it either, the moon would appear dark all the time.

Not necessarily, it would appear blue-ish though.

the ultraviolet and visual spectrums are completly different things. uv or blacklights cover the visual spectrum, that's why we can see them. pure ultraviolet radiation can not be seen by the human eye.

Actually they are part of the same spectrum.

The electromagnetic spectrum.

The frequency of UV light is higher than the frequency our eyes are capable of registering. Similarly the frequency of IR light is too low.

Still the same spectrum though, Radio Waves and Gamma radiation are at the extreme points of the EM Spectrum

but you get what i'm saying right? ultraviolet radiation is not visible to the human eye.

You're misinterpreting the "temperature" of light. Yes, we call red and orange "warm colors" and blue and purple "cool colors" but this is actually not the same as warmer or colder when it comes to radiation. Cooler black-body radiation is actually redder than hotter black-body radiation. This is why hot metal looks red or orange - when it is cool, it emits black-body radiation mostly in the infrared, which we can't see, and then when it gets hot the light becomes red or orange. This is why as metals heat up, their color goes from red to orange to yellow to white, and why hotter stars appear bluer than cooler stars. (It's not why blue flames are hotter than yellow flames though - that has to do with ionization of oxygen molecules in a flame.)

So cooler black-body radiation includes *less* ultraviolet, and so you are *less* likely to get a sunburn, not more. This agrees with what we observe.

The moon doesn't emit black-body radiation at all, but rather an altered spectrum where visible light is present, but neither ultraviolet or infrared radiation is present in appreciable amounts - this is not black-body radiation for any temperature, but is something different. This is because the light emitted is reflected sunlight, and the moon absorbs the infrared but reflects the visible light.