Atmospheric conditions can also affect the brightness of the colors. For instance, extra particles in the atmosphere, such as ash from a large wildfire or a recent volcanic eruption, may cause the moon to appear a darker shade of red, according to NASA. The moon doesn't always hide completely behind Earth's shadow. During partial lunar eclipses, the sun, Earth and moon are slightly off in their alignment, and so our planet's shadow engulfs just part of the moon.
A novice skywatcher might not even notice the third type of lunar eclipse, the penumbral kind, in which the moon sits in Earth's penumbra, or its faint outer shadow. Wednesday's total lunar eclipse is expected to be visible in Australia, parts of the western United States, western South America and Southeast Asia, according to timeanddate.
Other areas of the world, including the entire U. As the eclipse occurs a few hours after the moon is the closest to the Earth on its orbit or reaches perigee, it makes this a Super Flower Blood Moon. The full moon in May is called the Flower Moon, hence the name. It is also popularly called Blood Moon due to the red tinge on the celestial body when it's fully eclipsed. This total lunar eclipse also marks the beginning of an 'almost tetrad' as it inaugurates the series of four big lunar eclipses in two years.
The total eclipse of the moon takes place at full moon when the Sun, the Earth and Moon are parallel to each other forming a line. This type of alignment is called a syzygy, which is an astronomical term coming from the Greek word for being paired together. During the total lunar eclipse, the Earth comes in between the Sun and the Moon blocking all the direct sunlight that could fall upon the Earth's natural satellite.
This blockage of the sunlight casts the Earth's shadow on the surface of the Moon. The moon looks red during the total lunar eclipse because while passing through the earth's atmosphere, the sunlight is refracted towards the Earth's surface and its colours with shorter wavelengths get scattered and filtered out.
The science of total lunar eclipses. The next piece of the puzzle of why a totally eclipsed Moon turns red is the Earth's atmosphere. The layer of air surrounding our planet is made up of different gases, water droplets, and dust particles. When sunlight entering the Earth's atmosphere strikes the particles that are smaller than the light's wavelengths, it gets scattered into different directions.
Not all colors in the light spectrum, however, are equally scattered. Colors with shorter wavelengths, especially the violet and blue colors, are scattered more strongly, so they are removed from the sunlight before it hits the surface of the Moon during a lunar eclipse. Those with longer wavelengths, like red and orange, pass through the atmosphere. This red-orange light is then bent or refracted around Earth, hitting the surface of the Moon and giving it the reddish-orange glow that total lunar eclipses are famous for.
Earth's three shadows. Armed with this information, he told the Arawak that the Christian god was unhappy that Columbus and his crew received no food. God would turn the moon red as a symbol of his anger, Columbus said.
As the event took place, frightened people "with great howling and lamentation came running from every direction to the ships laden with provisions, praying to the Admiral to intercede with his god on their behalf," according to an account by Columbus' son Ferdinand. This article was updated by Space. Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community space.
Elizabeth Howell is a contributing writer for Space. She is the author or co-author of several books on space exploration. Elizabeth holds a Ph. She also holds a bachelor of journalism degree from Carleton University in Canada, where she began her space-writing career in Besides writing, Elizabeth teaches communications at the university and community college level, and for government training schools.
To see her latest projects, follow Elizabeth on Twitter at howellspace.
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