General Question

patg7590's avatar

Why does the moon get blood red sometimes?

Asked by patg7590 (4608points) September 6th, 2009 from iPhone

What is the scientific reason behind this phenomenon?

Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

8 Answers

The_Compassionate_Heretic's avatar

That’s during an eclipse. The effect is called “red shift”.
Also, discoloration of the moon happens close to the horizon as a result of local air pollution but that’s usually orange.

Ansible1's avatar

When the moon is low on the horizon the sunlight reflecting from it must pass through a lot more of our atmosphere before it reaches your eyes than it does when it is further up in the sky, or right overhead. Pollution, dust, and even humidity makes the air act like a filter blocking out some of the light. What reaches us are the longer wavelengths that are in the red and orange parts of the spectrum. It is the same effect that makes a sunrise, or sunset glow with a red, or orange hue

patg7590's avatar

Well it’s red right now here in copper harbor michigan, but it’s not an eclipse…is that always why? Is it a special type of eclipse?

The_Compassionate_Heretic's avatar

It’s most likely pollution.

Sarcasm's avatar

I thought it was just the peyote.

Les's avatar

@Ansible1 has the right answer. It could be because of pollution, but it doesn’t have to be. Dust and smoke naturally occurring in the atmosphere would cause the same effect. The effect that this is showing is Rayleigh scattering, which is also the process by which we see a blue sky.

pathfinder's avatar

pass that one

Strauss's avatar

There may be a higher than usual concentration of particulates in the atmosphere due in part to the California wildfires.

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