Red Ring Around the Earth: A Different Perspective on a Total Lunar Eclipse (Concept)

1 year ago
21

If you were standing on the Moon during a total lunar eclipse, you would see a ring of orange or red light around the Earth where the atmosphere extends into space around our home planet. In essence, you would be watching all of the sunrises and sunsets on Earth at the same time! The dark Earth in front of you would be the parts of the Earth where it is night. On the other side of the Earth, where the sunlight reaches the planet face on, it would be daytime (with blue skies because of the way our atmosphere scatters different wavelengths of light).

The rosy ring around Earth would essentially be places on Earth glanced by sunlight and transitioning from day to night (dusk) on one side, and night to day (dawn) on the other, as the Earth rotates on its axis.

The reason why the Moon turns red during a total lunar eclipse is related to why we have such beautiful pink, orange, and red sunrises and sunsets to enjoy. When we see a sunrise or sunset from our perspective on Earth, sunlight is coming in at a low angle. It has to travel through a lot of atmosphere, scattering more and more blue-colored light as it goes ... until what is left when the light reaches us at these day/night transition times is the more reddish wavelengths that get through.

Source: https://mars.nasa.gov/all-about-mars/night-sky/lunar-eclipse/

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