This Sunday will bring with it a Supermoon Eclipse. The lunar eclipse happens when the moon passes through the Earth’s shadow. It will last for just over an hour. According to NASA, the Supermoon will be visible, “to North and South America, Europe, Africa, and parts of West Asia and the eastern Pacific. Weather permitting, you can see the supermoon after nightfall, and the eclipse will cast it into shadow beginning at 8:11 p.m. EDT. The total eclipse starts at 10:11 p.m. EDT, peaking at 10:47 p.m. EDT.”
The cause behind the Supermoon eclipse is something I’m not fully capable of explaining, so I’ll let NASA tell you what’s happening and why:
The moon does not make its own light; it reflects light it receives from the sun. During a lunar eclipse, the moon appears less and less bright as sunlight is blocked by the Earth’s shadow. As totality approaches, sunlight reaches the moon indirectly and is refracted around the “edges” of Earth, through Earth’s atmosphere. Because of this, almost all colors except red are “filtered” out, and the eclipsed moon appears reddish or dark brown. This filtering is caused by particulates in our atmosphere; when there have been a lot of fires and/or volcanic eruptions, lunar eclipses will appear darker and redder. This eerie — but harmless — effect has earned the phenomenon the nickname “blood moon.”
Don’t miss out on Sunday! If you do, you won’t be able to see it again until 2033! If you live in an area that is polluted with light, therefore making a bad view for Sunday, be sure to check out NASA’s live stream!
To ask NASA a question regarding the Supermoon eclipse, you can tweet them using #askNASA.
