How the blood moon gets its ghoulish shade
Image: NASA Goddard
Excerpted from Deep space in 100 Colors: Strange and Wondrous Colors from Science and Nature by Tyler Thrasher and Terry Mudge. September 24, 2024, Sasquatch Books. Released with consent.
The red of a blood moon is the best example of how 2 different bodies can have an extreme yet short-lived impact on one another. A couple of things need to line up perfect for people to delight in the vibrant screen of a blood moon, beginning with the reality that Earth is thankfully simply big enough to cast the moon entirely in its shadow under the ideal conditions, likewise called a complete lunar eclipse. The 2nd essential element is our environment. A blood moon is the outcome of Rayleigh scattering, a phenom...