Why this color?

From:  "j james"

why is the moon white?

brad answered with these two ideas: 

the moon is white for two reasons. 1. Because the moon is made up a bunch of dust and stone particles. 2. because the sun reflects off the moon without the sun we wouldn't be able to see the moon.

TB helped out with this: 

The Moon appears white most of the time because it reflects the sunlight falling on it. In the morning and evening the Moon may appear red due to the bending of the reflected light in the Earth's atmosphere.

amrshalakanidr believes this: 

The moon isn't white at all...it has a grayish sand & rock covered surface.....but due to the reflection of sun's light upon it back to earth and through our atmosphere... it does appear as being white......sometimes it even appears red when the sky is dusty of some sort...

Stu rattled off this answer: 

The Moon isn't really white. Actual fact, it is a variety of tones of grey. If you are wondering why the Moon looks so white when it is full and overhead (not on the horizon), this is because the surface of the Moon is covered with silica dust. Silica dust has some glass-like properties. It reflects light brightly when the the light
source is coming from a perpendicular or near perpendicular angle. Hence when it
is a full moon the Sun light is is hitting the Moon more directly and since the Earth is sharing that near perpendicular angle we see the brightest reflection of the Sun's light off of the Moon's surface.

Todd replied with this: 

Well the moon really isn't white. It looks white at night time because you are seeing white light reflecting off the moon. If you look closely you can see some spots of grey. The moon is actually grey and it only appears to be white because of the light it reflects.

Jelly Bean added this: 

The moon is white when its position in relation to the earth allows it to reflect more sunlight. When you see a yellow or orange moon, its because less sunlight is being reflected, and you see more earth light. Thats what happens in a lunar eclipse--the earth is right between moon and sun, and ALL you see is earth light- red.

conchita estela(Kimmi Lauren's sister) responded with this: 

it is not actually white...just appears to be...it glows because of the suns rays when they reflect off of it...so it appears to be white. the moon is grey...grey moon dust

Xyleman concluded with this thought: 

The moon is not necessarily white; it just has very little color. The moon is actually varying shades of grey, depending on the relative albedo (reflectivity) of its surface. Less reflective areas appear darker, more reflective surfaces appear brighter. The light of the moon is reflected sunlight, which apears white to our eyes. The moon has no atmosphere, which gives color to some planets, nor does it have distictive chemistry that gives rise to certain colors, such as the ruddy hue of Mars. Basically the moon is just a grey place.