Why is the Moon sometimes orange or red?
Have you ever wondered why the moon is more orange or yellow in color when it first rises at night. This effect is caused by the atmosphere of the earth. The reason for the orange color is due to the scattering of light by the atmosphere. When the moon is near the horizon, the moonlight must pass through much more atmosphere than when the moon is directly overhead.
By the time the moonlight reaches your eyes, the blue, green, and purple pieces of visible light have been scattered away by air molecules. That's why you only see yellow, orange, or red.
The moon can have an orange color at any time of the year. Sometimes the moon appears orange even when it's directly overhead. This occurs when there's a lot of dust, smoke, or pollution in the atmosphere. The size of those particles will determine the type of color you will see.
Reference:
http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=280
http://www.universetoday.com/19626/color-of-the-moon/
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I think there should be also green moon, by the same principle as there is "Green flash" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_flash ).
ReplyDeleteIndeed Mindey I. ;)
ReplyDeleteSilly science, everyone knows it's a sign of the apocalypse!
ReplyDeleteTrue...we die a little everyday ;)
ReplyDeleteCorina, as usual, nice pictures. Gratulations!
ReplyDeleteAlejandro, like always danke! =)
ReplyDeleteA small death every day.
ReplyDeletesuper great gif - very positive direction ...
ReplyDeleteA death every day, and a resuraction every night. Very lovely gif. C.Marinescu thank you very much.
ReplyDeleteThe moon is red only once in a blue moon.
ReplyDelete