A super “blood moon” will thrill sky watchers in the western United States this week.
Early Wednesday morning, the Blood Moon – named for its red glow – will be visible from North America.
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According to NASA, the blood moon occurs during a total lunar eclipse when the Earth aligns between the moon and the sun.
“When this happens, the only light that reaches the moon’s surface comes from the edges of the Earth’s atmosphere. Air molecules in Earth’s atmosphere scatter most of the blue light. The remaining light reflects off the moon’s surface with a red glow, which makes the moon appear red in the night sky, ”the agency explained on its website.
Notably, this blood moon will be a combination of the full moon of May flowers – which is classified as a super moon – and a total lunar eclipse.
A total lunar eclipse is observed on June 15, 2011 in Jerusalem, Israel. The longest lunar eclipse in a decade occurred tonight. A lunar eclipse occurs when the sun, earth, and moon line up and the shadow of the Earth falls on the moon. (Photo by Uriel Sinai / Getty Images)
(Uriel Sinai / Getty Images)
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A super moon, also known as a perigee full moon, occurs when the side of the moon facing Earth is fully illuminated by the sun and is at the closest point in its orbit around Earth.
While the super blood moon will be visible over East Asia, the Pacific Ocean and the western United States, most of the eastern seaboard and central United States will have the short end of the stick as the moon will be below the horizon at the time of the full eclipse.
Only the Pacific Rim will see the eclipse reach “fullness” from 11:11 to 11:25 UTC, but the whole world will see a supermoon, according to Forbes.
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East Coast viewers can plan to see the supermoon starting at 4:38 a.m. ET, with the moon traversing all of Earth’s shadow – or Shade – at 5:45 a.m. ET, NASA’s Gordon Johnston said in an article. blog post on Monday.
The entire Lunar Blood Moon eclipse will last approximately 14 minutes and 30 seconds, and the moon will set at 5:51 a.m.ET.
After the eclipse, the event repeats in the opposite direction as the moon emerges from Earth’s shadow.
The next full moon will appear opposite the sun in Earth longitude at 7:14 a.m.ET.
The moon will appear full until Thursday morning.
Forbes explained that the name Flower Moon indicates that just nine hours before it becomes fully illuminated, the moon will reach its closest point to Earth – or perigee – for the year.
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The Flower Moon gets its name from the abundance of flowers that emerge in late spring.
The next super moon – the super “Strawberry Moon” will be visible on the East Coast on June 24 and three more eclipses are planned before 2022.
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