Washington – A eclipse Total like the one who will live the moon at dawn from this Thursday to Friday, in which it will be dyed red, “it cannot be seen again until 2048,” said Yasmina Martos, a scientist from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (POT)in an interview with EFE.
Martos, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, explained that this phenomenon occurs because the sun, earth and the moon are aligned so that the satellite passes through the complete shadow of our planet.
As he clarified, an alignment of this type “occurs every six months”, but the fact that the orbit of our satellite is inclined makes partial eclipses, not like the one that will happen tonight.
When it comes to a complete one, in addition, another astronomical phenomenon known as the Blood moon.
“As the eclipse begins and the moon begins to go through the shadow of the earth, it will begin to become orange until it becomes reddish. That is because the light that comes from the sun passes through the atmosphere of the earth as if it were a halo and the length of the light that passes is the red one and it is the one that reaches the moon, ”Martos said.
In the case in which this phenomenon could be seen from our satellite would be “how to see all the sunrises and sunsets of the earth at the same time,” he said.
This event, which will be seen fundamentally from America, It will begin on Friday midnight (local time) and will reach “its maximum about 3:00 in the morning” although in total it will last about six hours.
1 /16 | From California to Germany: thus the lunar eclipse around the world was captured. Irwindale, California. – Ringo Hw Chiu
This eclipse is even more special for NASA scientists because the date on which it will occur (March 14) is the day of Pi (3.14), the mathematical equation used in many scientific fields and that in this case helps astronomers calculate which part of the moon will be covered by the shadow of the earth.
“It is very complicated to match this day. Pi is a very important number not only for mathematics, but for all science. He is quite spectacular, ”he said about the coincidence.
For Martos this eclipse, beyond its spectacularity, is a job opportunity, because it is involved in one of the Blue Ghost instruments, NASA’s mission on the moon that landed there last March 2.
This ship is part of the Artemis program, which seeks to bring humans back to the satellite, and this time will study data before, during and after the eclipse to continue knowing the secrets of the moon.
“We are checking that it is not easy to land on the moon. It is necessary to know what the surface conditions are in detail before sending astronauts to certain points of the moon, ”he said.
Beyond Eclipse himself, this Thursday night will also be an opportunity to see Jupiter and Mars “perfectly with our eyes”, although it has nothing to do with the alignment, according to nuance.
1 /31 | Spectacular images of the lunar eclipse from different parts of the world. A lunar eclipse was visible in total phase from the entire island, as well as from all over Latin America, east of North America and Europe. The most intense phase of the eclipse began at 11:29 pm on Sunday, being the maximum at 12:11 am, and culminating at 12:53 am in the early hours of Monday. Image from California. – Ringo Hw Chiu
Next year, in 2026, it is expected that there will be another total eclipse, but in this case it will be solar and can be considered better from Europe.
“When there is a solar eclipse, the moon is between the sun and the earth, then our planet passes through the shadow. If you see a total solar eclipse it is like seeing the shadow of the moon coming on the ground, ”he said.