Stargazers who were awake early this morning may have noticed something a little off about the moon — namely, a blood-red tint.
The blood moon that was visible at about 3 a.m. today was caused by a total lunar eclipse. Sarik Jeram, president of the UF Astronomy and Astrophysics Society, said the moon appears red during a total lunar eclipse because of the way light from the Sun reacts when it passes through Earth’s atmosphere.
“The photons from that light go through interactions with the gases in the atmosphere,” the 20-year-old UF astronomy junior said. “It basically shifts their wavelength to a longer wavelength, and that’s called reddening.”
Jeram said the eclipse could be seen anywhere on this side of the planet from about 1 to 4 a.m.
Alexandrea Matthews, a science journalism intern at the Alachua Astronomy Club, said this is the first total lunar eclipse visible from Gainesville since 2010.
This lunar occurrence is especially significant because it is the first in a “tetrad,” which is a series of four lunar eclipses that will occur during the next two years.
She said because atmospheric conditions will change throughout the next two years, the four eclipses will not look the same.
“Each total lunar eclipse will be its own individual shade of color, and so each one in the tetrad will be unique,” she said.
Matthews said eclipses are exciting because they are a phenomenon exclusive to Earth’s solar system. People on Earth only see eclipses because, from Earth’s viewpoint, the moon and the Sun appear to be the same size.
“It can’t be seen from any other planet in our solar system,” Matthews said. “It’s a privilege of living on planet Earth.”
[A version of this story ran on page 4 on 4/15/2014 under the headline "Blood moon appeared this morning for first time since ’10"]
The blood moon, caused by a total lunar eclipse, was visible at about 3 a.m. today for the first time since 2010.
