Total lunar eclipse 202111/8/2022 ![]() ![]() NASA describes this effect as “ It’s as if all the world’s sunrises and sunsets are projected onto the Moon.” What’s the difference between the Earth’s umbra and penumbra?ĭuring a lunar eclipse, there are two shadows that are cast on the Moon: a lighter, outer shadow called the penumbra, and a darker, inner shadow called the umbra. Volcanic eruptions that send particulates high into the stratosphere, can often block light and result in a ‘darker’ eclipse. The more dust or cloud cover that there is in the atmosphere, the redder the Moon will look from our vantage point. The eclipse will happen as the Moon is sinking towards the horizon on the morning of © Getty images The long wavelengths of red light can penetrate the atmosphere, which, from the perspective of the Moon, would resemble a ring (annulus) around the Earth. However, light can still pass through our atmosphere, so the Moon will not completely disappear. Blue light has a shorter wavelength and is scattered more easily than red light, which has a longer wavelength and is not so easily scattered.ĭuring a lunar eclipse, the Earth blocks sunlight from directly illuminating the surface of the Moon. Because light travels in waves, and each colour in the light spectrum has a different wavelength, different colours get scattered differently. Particles and gases in the atmosphere scatter sunlight in all directions, in a process called Rayleigh scattering. The red colour is caused by the refractive and scattering effects of the planet’s atmosphere. In a lunar eclipse, the Earth passes directly between the Moon and the Sun © Getty Imagesĭuring a lunar eclipse, the Moon will first pass into the penumbra, the outer part of the Earth’s shadow, then into the umbra at totality, then back into the other side of the penumbra, before leaving the shadow altogether. ![]()
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