yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Lunar eclipses | The Earth-sun-moon system | Middle school Earth and space science | Khan Academy


2m read
·Nov 10, 2024

Have you ever seen the full moon appear to change from this to this to this all in a couple hours? If so, you've witnessed a lunar eclipse. The word eclipse comes from a Greek word meaning "to leave."

For centuries, people have marveled that a full moon appears to leave during a lunar eclipse. The Incas believed that lunar eclipses happened when a giant jaguar ate the full moon. It turns out lunar eclipses happen when the moon is covered by Earth's shadow.

We can only see the moon because it reflects light from the sun; the moon doesn't generate any light of its own. The sun lights up half of the sphere of the moon. When Earth is between the sun and the moon, we can see the entire lit part of the moon. We call this the full moon.

But sometimes, during a full moon, Earth, the moon, and the sun all line up in such a way that Earth casts a shadow onto the moon. This creates a lunar eclipse. Lunar eclipses can be seen from anywhere on the night side of Earth.

The two most dramatic types of lunar eclipses are total and partial. During a total lunar eclipse, Earth's shadow completely covers the moon. This means that no direct sunlight is reaching the moon. However, the moon is still visible during the eclipse.

Why is this? As sunlight passes through our atmosphere, some of it gets bent slightly, allowing it to reach the moon as indirect sunlight. Most of the light that gets bent is red or orange, meaning that the moon appears reddish-orange during the eclipse.

During a partial lunar eclipse, Earth's shadow only partially covers the moon, so some direct sunlight is still reaching the moon. Lunar eclipses only happen during a full moon since it's the only time in the moon's orbit where Earth is between the sun and the moon.

And you might be wondering, why isn't there a lunar eclipse during every full moon? Well, the moon's orbit around Earth is tilted relative to Earth's orbit around the sun. This means that the moon often passes just above or just below Earth's shadow.

Partial lunar eclipses happen when the sun, the moon, and Earth almost, but not quite, exactly line up so that the moon is only partially covered by Earth's shadow. Total lunar eclipses happen only when the sun, the moon, and Earth all line up precisely.

So if you ever get to see a lunar eclipse, you can thank our planet for blocking the moon's sunlight and letting us enjoy the celestial spectacle.

More Articles

View All
Why more White Sharks are pushing north into Canadian waters | Shark Below Zero
NARRATOR: Heading back to shore, the team review the footage from cameras mounted on the bait lines. MEGAN: Chh chh chh chh chh. Oh, that’s such a good one! HEATHER: So that’s when the buoy went down. You on to that, Meg? GREG: Look at that. MEGAN: Oh…
How do you deal with stress Jeff Bezos
The stress primarily comes from not taking action over something that you can have some control over. So, if I find that some particular thing is causing me to have stress, that’s a, uh, a warning flag for me. What it means is there’s something that I hav…
Trump More Likely To Win The Election?
I’m just getting a feeling like I had in 2016 that this is Trump’s to lose. Now, what’s your feeling telling you? Well, you know, there’s—and I get this data pretty well every morning—there’s 43 counties in seven states. 45% of the population hates Trump…
Life Below the Ocean Surface | StarTalk
So you know that’s a fish. Oh, that’s cool. He’s cute, or she. You can’t even tell. But what is that fish thinking? Is it like— is it nostalgia? Is it rage? Maybe I’m just projecting. But you can’t really tell what it’s thinking. It’s a mystery. It’s an e…
Factoring polynomials using complex numbers | Khan Academy
We’re told that Ahmat tried to write ( x^4 + 5x^2 + 4 ) as a product of linear factors. This is his work, and then they tell us all the steps that he did, and then they say in what step did Ahmad make his first mistake. So pause this video and see if you …
Bhakti movement | World History | Khan Academy
In other videos, we have talked about the various empires of India. As we exit the Vic period, we talk about the Moria Empire, famous for the ruler Ashoka, who converts and then spreads Buddhism. As we get into the Common Era, we’ve talked about the Gupta…