SUPER BLUE BLOOD MOON



On 31st  January 2018 , a rare phenomenon occurred; wherein three astronomical events - a lunar eclipse, a blue moon and a supermoon were witnessed  at one instance. This triple line up of events was last observed on December 30, 1982. This eclipse was best visible in the western half of US and Canada. Australia got the first glimpse of the full event, as it spread across the world. Much of Asia also got to observe – though the UK, Europe and Africa missed out on seeing the blood moon, or lunar eclipse. In Goa, the lunar eclipse was observed around 6:30 pm.

The lunar eclipse: This happens whenever the Earth passes directly between the Sun and the Moon, and the Moon falls into our planet’s shadow, or umbra. The Moon doesn’t go completely dark, though: the Sun’s light still manages to shine onto the lunar surface, but it  appears mostly reddish-orange, due to a phenomenon known as “scattering of light”. Whenever the sunlight passes through the Earth’s atmosphere, the air molecules filter out - scatter - blue and purple light, since they have shorter wavelengths. Red and orange light due to their longer wavelengths can more easily pass through our atmosphere. They then get bent and redirected onto the Moon’s surface, thus the moon being observed as a dark reddish moon. Hence the term blood moon is used to describe the moon during the lunar eclipse. Since the light is only shining on the Moon indirectly, so the lunar surface is much dimmer than normal

Blue Moon: This term does not deal with the Moon’s colour. A Moon is considered a “Blue Moon” when it’s the second full Moon in a calendar month. This doesn’t happen very often since full Moons roughly happens every 29.5 days. January began with a full Moon on the 1st, so the month closed out with a full moon, too. Blue moons occur every 2.7 years.
Supermoon: It means that the moon is closer to the Earth than usual. Since the Moon doesn’t orbit our planet in a perfect circle, but follows more of an elliptical path, so its distance from Earth varies. Supermoons occur whenever a full Moon is closest to Earth on its orbit, making it about 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than full Moons that are the farthest away from Earth. This closest point is known as perigee. It is at a mean distance of around 363,396 kilometres. At the peak of the eclipse the moon was at a distance of 360,200 kilometres, close enough for the supermoon status.  This supermoon was the last of the three consecutive supermoons- December 3, 2017, January 1, 2018 and January 31, 2018. This is a special occurrence as all three full moons of the astronomical winter were supermoons. The phenomenon last occurred in 2016 and will occur again in 2020.
Being one of the rarest of phenomena, the next super blue blood moon will occur by March 31, 2037.
Sources:
(2018, January 29). Retrieved from www.theverge.com: https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/29/16944660/super-blood-blue-moon-total-lunar-eclipse-january-31st
(2018, 2 1). Retrieved from www.indiatoday.com: https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/gk-current-affairs/story/new-year-day-supermoon-goa-high-alert-full-wolf-moon-blue-blood-moon-january-2018-1120376-2018-01-02
Lunar Eclipse superblood moon 2018, India. (2018). Financial Express, 1.

Rare lunar eclipse elicits.... (2018). oheraldo, 2.

Contributor: Bevelio Goes

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