CITY OF GAZA, Gaza Strip – MARCH 03: Earth’s shadow passes over the moon for the first full moon … [+] eclipse after three years March 3, 2007 over the city of Gaza, the Gaza Strip. The next total lunar eclipse will occur on August 28, 2007 (Photo by Abid Katib / Getty Images)
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In the late hours of Sunday to early Monday morning, the full moon will slip into the shadow of the Earth, creating a total lunar eclipse that will color the night sky satellite a reddish tinge – giving the phenomenon the nickname “bloody moon”.
But this time, scientists suspect that the celestial event will create a moon that looks more intensely red than normal, thanks to a powerful event that happened not so long ago here on Earth.
MORE THAN FORBESWhen exactly to see the stunning total lunar eclipse “Bloody Moon” this weekend from every US state By Jamie Carter
In January, an underwater volcano erupted in the South Pacific near the uninhabited island of Hongga Tonga-Hongga Haapai. The plume from the eruption catapulted high into the atmosphere, reaching 36 miles above sea level.
According to NASA, this is probably the highest jet captured in the satellite era.
“The intensity of this event far exceeds that of any storm cloud I’ve ever explored,” said Christopher Bedka, NASA’s Langley atmospheric scientist.
The resulting cloud of ash and gas spread over a stratosphere larger than Georgia.
The eruption in January 2022, as seen from space.
NASA
During a lunar eclipse, much of the sunlight that illuminates the moon passes through the stratosphere, where it disperses to produce the effect of a red “bloody moon.” Additional material recently injected into this atmospheric layer can cause a darkening that is bloodier than normal.
“Prolonged muffler volcano can overshadow the eclipse, making it darker red than usual,” astronomer Tony Phillips wrote at Spaceweather.com.
Nearly a thousand years ago, on May 5, 1110, some medieval writers reported a lunar eclipse that darkened the moon’s disk so much that it was “completely extinct.” In 2020, researchers used data from an ice core and a ring of trees to link the intense eclipse to a volcanic eruption in Japan two years earlier.
It is not clear whether our moon will be completely obliterated on Sunday evening and Monday morning, but regardless of the additional effect of volcanic activity, this will be a show worth going out for.
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