Supermoon

There was a lunar eclipse, as the Earth passed between the Sun and the Moon, for Australia, Asia and some parts of the US and Eastern Europe on Wednesday 31 January 2018. It is the second full Moon of the month, called a Blue Moon. The eclipse began at 10:51GMT and ended at 16:08 GMT.

The word “ blood” has been used to describe the deep red colour of the sunlight that passes through Earth’s atmosphere to illuminate our celestial neighbour.

Dr. Shannon Schmoll, director of Abrams Planetarium in Michigan said, “ This red glow was produced by the same effect that gave us blue skies and red sunsets. Some sunlight is skimming through the Earth’s atmosphere on its way to the Moon”.

India’s space Agency ISRO is set to launch and land a rover on the lunar surface later in 2018, and China’s chang’e 5 mission which aims to return Moon samples to Earth for the first time since 1976.

 

The supermoon should appear 7 per cent larger than average and about 15 per cent brighter.