Monday, 22 August 2022

Blue Moon ... and every other colour moon

This extraordinary image - assembled by Marcella Giulia Pace - appeared on NASA's astronomical photo of the day page in November last year. 

It shows the moon captured in various colours and the image is quite stunning.
NASA explains it like this: 

Outside of the Earth's atmosphere, the dark moon, which shines by reflected sunlight, appears a magnificently brown-tinged grey. Viewed from inside the Earth's atmosphere, though, the moon can appear quite different. The featured image highlights a collection of apparent colours of the full moon documented by one astrophotographer over 10 years from different locations across Italy. A red or yellow coloured moon usually indicates a moon seen near the horizon. There, some of the blue light has been scattered away by a long path through the Earth's atmosphere, sometimes laden with fine dust. A blue-coloured moon is more rare and can indicate a moon seen through an atmosphere carrying larger dust particles. What created the purple moon is unclear - it may be a combination of several effects. The last image captures the total lunar eclipse of 2018 July where the moon, in Earth's shadow, appeared a faint red due to light refracted through air around the Earth. 

All I know is that it's quite beautiful. No wonder our ancestors worshipped it. 

Original source is here.


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