Total lunar eclipse 2022: Why Moon turns red during Chandra Grahan, NASA Explains
The first total lunar eclipse of 2022 will take place on May 15-16 (the night of May 15 in the Western Hemisphere) when the Moon enters the Earth's shadow, creating a total lunar eclipse, the first since May of 2021. The eclipse will turn the Moon red. "The total lunar eclipse of May 16, 2022 (the night of May 15 in the Western Hemisphere) occurs near perigee, making the Moon appear about 7% larger than average. This eclipse is ideally timed for viewing from most of the Western Hemisphere, including the Lower 48 of the United States. The total phase occurs near moonset in Africa and western Europe," NASA said in a report.
A lunar eclipse occurs when the Sun, Earth, and Moon align so that the Moon passes into Earth’s shadow. In a total lunar eclipse, the entire Moon falls within the darkest part of Earth’s shadow, called the umbra. When the Moon is within the umbra, it will turn a reddish hue. Lunar eclipses are sometimes called “Blood Moons” because of this phenomenon, according to NASA.
The Moon turns red during a lunar eclipse because of the same phenomenon that makes the sky blue and sunsets red. It’s called Rayleigh scattering. Light travels in waves, and different colors of light have different physical properties. Blue light has a shorter wavelength and is scattered more easily by particles in Earth’s atmosphere than red light, which has a longer wavelength.
Red light, on the other hand, travels more directly through the atmosphere. When the Sun is overhead, we see blue light throughout the sky. But when the Sun is setting, sunlight must pass through a greater amount of atmosphere and travel farther before reaching our eyes. The blue light from the Sun scatters away, and longer-wavelength red, orange, and yellow light
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