When I happened to look at the moon, I saw a shadow that resembled the shadow of a satellite. However, the shadow disappeared after a few seconds. Could it be that I saw the shadow of a satellite on the moon?
Answer
Satellites don’t create a shadow that extends to the surface. So it couldn’t have been that. I did the math once, a satellite with a size of say 3 meters would make a shadow cone of about 300m. That is the ratio of size to length of the shadow cone at a distance of 150 million kilometers from the sun. The sun there has an apparent diameter of half a degree.
Satellites around the moon are at least a few tens of kilometers to stay over the highest mountains. And satellites orbiting the Earth certainly won’t cast a shadow on the moon.
Was it a satellite that revolved around the earth and happened to pass between you and the moon? That can happen in itself, but you won’t see it. A satellite is only a few meters in size, and is located at an altitude of many hundreds of kilometers. At that distance you can no longer see such a small object.
What have you seen now? In science, we always look for the simplest explanation, and I think of a plane you saw moving over the bright lunar disk. That can indeed take a few seconds depending on the direction. That is the most obvious explanation that agrees with your observation. The statement that requires the least additional assumptions.

Answered by
prof.dr. Paul Hellings
Department of Mathematics, Fac. IIW, KU Leuven

Old Market 13 3000 Leuven
https://www.kuleuven.be/
.