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Asked by cutiichick to Dalya, Derek, Sarah, Tim, Tom on 19 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by amisazaman.
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Tim Millar answered on 16 Jun 2011:
A lunar eclipse happens when the earth comes between the sun and the moon, so that the moon moves into the earths shadow. We see the moon because it reflects sun light back down to earth. If the earth is blocking that light then we can’t see it as well.
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Derek McKay-Bukowski answered on 16 Jun 2011:
A lunar eclipse is where the moon goes behind the earth, with respect to the sun. In other words, when the earth’s shadow falls on the moon, it goes dark.
Often the colour of the moon changes too. This is due to some colours of light scattering through the earth’s atmosphere to shine on the moon. This means although it is a lot darker, it can still be seen (and often with a reddish hue).
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Sarah Thomas answered on 17 Jun 2011:
A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon passes behind the earth so that the earth blocks the suns rays from striking the moons surface.
The last total lunar eclipse was on monday, which is why i’m guessing, that you asked this question. The next one will be on the 10th of December.
🙂
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Tom Crick answered on 19 Jun 2011:
A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon passes behind the Earth so that the earth blocks the sun’s rays from striking the moon. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are aligned exactly, or very closely so, with the Earth in the middle. Hence, a lunar eclipse can only occur the night of a full moon.
Did you see the recent lunar eclipse?
Comments
123sm123 commented on :
how do you know when the lunar eclipse occurs
Derek commented on :
Predicting eclipses is one of the things that demonstrates the predictive power of science. In order to know when an eclipse occurs, you need to know exactly what each object is doing… the sun, the earth and the moon. By defining the orbits of these objects mathematically, you can come up with equations explaining where they will be at any given time.
You then solve these equations, in order to work out the times that they will line up. These times will be the times of the lunar eclipse (you can do the same for solar eclipses as well).