The moon will change different colors during different stages of a total lunar eclipse
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — During a lunar eclipse, a red color will appear. The most dramatic radiance occurs during moon eclipse total. Why is this happening?
Many people ask why the moon can be covered in bright orange to blood red light. The phenomenon that causes the radiance of the sky that was originally blue to change is known as hamburan Rayleigh or preferential scattering of certain wavelengths of light from very small particles. This is about one-tenth the wavelength of light or less.
During the day, the sun’s light waves are made up of colors that correspond to their respective wavelengths. These light waves are filtered through the atmosphere, where tiny nitrogen and oxygen gas molecules let longer wavelengths like red, orange, and yellow pass directly into the ground.
However, shorter wavelengths, such as violet and blue, are absorbed and then scattered in all directions. This provides more opportunities to be seen in our eyes.
That’s how the same light scattering phenomenon makes the moon visible. During a total lunar eclipse, the sun, Earth, and moon are in one line.
When the Earth is directly in front of the sun, it blocks the sunlight from shining on the moon. At that time, you will see a ring of light around the moon, because even though our planet is much larger than the sun, the light from the stars bends around the edges of the Earth and this light will be reflected back to the moon.
“The dark terrestrial disc is surrounded by every sunrise and sunset in the world, at once,” NASA said in a statement. Live Science, Wednesday (17/11).
However, sunlight must pass through Earth’s atmosphere before hitting the moon. Along the way, blue light with shorter wavelengths scattered before reaching the moon, leaving red and orange hues without wetting the moon’s surface, then the moon turned red.
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