A rare event will be able to be observed on the night of Sunday to Monday. The Moon will pass through the Earth’s shadow and create a total lunar eclipse.
The “Blood Moon” phenomenon, which has fascinated the human species for millennia, is a rare opportunity for lovers of space observation.
“What’s wonderful is that when the Moon is entirely in shadow, when it’s in the darkest part of the shadow, it’s actually going to look to our eyes like it’s pink or orange. That’s because our eyes are adjust to that darker light. And, in fact, the only light reaching the Moon right now is the light that spreads through the Earth’s atmosphere,” explains US Space Agency (NASA) scientist Michelle Taller .
The total eclipse can be seen more easily in the South America, parts of Central and North America and the Asian continent. A partial eclipse will be seen as far away as New Zealand or Eastern Europe.
The Moon is increasingly on the horizon of Earthlings. NASA hopes to send a crew by 2024 on the Artemis program missions to settle for months.
But before that happens, there is work to be done.
“We still have a long way to go to make sure it’s going to be safe. We obviously want to make sure that we have as successful a mission as possible. So we’re starting to send a lot of robotic spacecraft. I’m most looking forward to, for example, there’s actually the NASA rover (robotized space exploration vehicle) called the Viper that goes there looking for the kinds of resources astronauts might need for a sustained presence on the Moon,” says the scientist.
Next year, NASA hopes to place the Viper rover at the Moon’s South Pole. The robot will spend 100 days looking for ice and other resources.
If the Artemis missions are successful, they could pave the way for humanity to go even further.
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