Yahoo – AFP,
Joshua Melvin, 24 Sep 2015
Paris (AFP) - For the first time in decades, skygazers are in for the double spectacle Monday of a swollen "supermoon" bathed in the blood-red light of a total eclipse.
A
'supermoon' is seen from the central French city of Luynes, in September 2014
(AFP Photo/Guillaume Souvant)
|
Paris (AFP) - For the first time in decades, skygazers are in for the double spectacle Monday of a swollen "supermoon" bathed in the blood-red light of a total eclipse.
The
celestial show, visible from the Americas, Europe, Africa, west Asia and the
east Pacific, will be the result of the Sun, Earth and a larger-than-life,
extra-bright Moon lining up for just over an hour from 0211 GMT.
"It
will be quite exciting and especially dramatic," predicted astronomer Sam
Lindsay of the Royal Astronomical Society in London.
"It'll
be brighter than usual, bigger than usual."
The Moon
will be at its closest orbital point to Earth, called perigee, while also in
its brightest phase.
The
resulting "supermoon" will look 30 percent brighter and 14 percent
larger than when at apogee, the farthest point -- which is about 49,800
kilometres (31,000 miles) from perigee.
Unusually,
our planet will take position in a straight line between the Moon and the Sun,
blotting out the direct sunlight that normally makes our satellite glow
whitish-yellow.
A
commercial airliner approaches Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC,
as it
flies past the full moon during a lunar eclipse on October 8, 2014 (AFP
Photo/Mark Wilson)
|
But some
light will still creep around Earth's edges and be filtered through its
atmosphere, casting an eerie red light that creates the "blood moon".
The Moon
travels to a similar position every month, but the tilt of its orbit means it
normally passes above or below the Earth's shadow -- so most months have a full
moon minus eclipse.
For people
younger than 33, this will be their first-ever chance to see a "super
blood moon".
The last,
only the fifth recorded since 1900, was in 1982, according to the NASA space
agency, and the next will not be until 2033.
If the
weather holds, that is -- the spectacle would not be visible behind cloud
cover.
'Gloom
and doom' Moon
On top of
the wow factor, the event is also of great interest for researchers.
Over a
24-day cycle, the temperature on the surface of our satellite normally ambles
between highs of about 121 degrees Celsius (250 degrees Fahrenheit) in direct
sunlight, and lows around minus 115 C in the shade.
These
changes help researchers study the composition of the crust, as rocks warm and
cool slower than sand-like dust.
But on
Monday, the eclipse will see that temperature shift happen much faster, over
the duration of the eclipse -- confining the observable change to the very
outer surface, said Noah Petro, deputy project scientist for NASA's lunar
orbiter.
"That
almost instant change tells us about the upper few centimetres of the surface.
We're getting a very fine, unique measurement of the uppermost surface,"
Petro told AFP.
Monday's
"blood moon" will be the last in a string of four total lunar
eclipses since April 15, 2014, in a series astronomers call a tetrad.
These
phenomena may be a normal part of the celestial calendar today, but for many
ancient peoples it was an omen of bad things to come.
"Throughout history many cultures have seen (eclipses) as being a sign of gloom and doom," Petro said.
"Throughout history many cultures have seen (eclipses) as being a sign of gloom and doom," Petro said.
They
weren't always wrong.
In February
1504, explorer Christopher Columbus used a blood moon to trick Jamaican natives
who had been feeding him and his men, but cut them off when relations turned
sour.
Columbus
knew a blood moon had been forecast, and warned the natives that his god would
send an angry "sign" at their treatment of the newcomers.
Legend has
it the natives came running with food as soon as the Moon turned red.
Unlike a
solar eclipse, which creates the impression of a bright "ring" of
light as the Moon passes before our star, there is no danger in watching
Monday's lunar spectacle with the naked eye, the experts say.
'Super blood moon' to give stargazers a rare show in the Americas, Europe, Africa http://t.co/fw7sTXZfSf pic.twitter.com/90KNPY1ASc
— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) 24 september 2015
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