• Question: why dose an eclips happen ?

    Asked by chloe97xox to Drew, Sara on 20 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by seanod56.
    • Photo: Drew Rae

      Drew Rae answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      Hi Chloe and Sean. An eclipse is just a big thing such as a planet or a moon casting a shadow onto another big thing. The recent eclipse was the moon passing through the edge of the shadow of the earth. For the same reason that the sky is blue, the edge of the earth’s shadow is red (what’s left after the blue light gets refracted down to us) so some eclipses of the moon are red as it passes through the edge of the earth’s shadow.

    • Photo: Sara Imari Walker

      Sara Imari Walker answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      Hello chloe and seanod! Eclipses are caused when large planetary bodies line up and one is temporarily obscured, either by passing into the shadow of the other body or by having the other body pass between it and the viewer. So for example, Solar eclipses happen when the Moon and Sun line up just right such that the Moon is lined up perfectly in front of the Sun, blocking its light (pretty crazy they both happen to be about the same size in our sky given the two objects are 93 million miles apart!). Conversely, a lunar eclipse happens when the Earth blocks the light from the Sun from reaching the Moon. In this case the Moon is temporarily obscured from our viewpoint because we are blocking its light from the Sun. We literally cast a shadow on the Moon! This can sometimes be red as Drew has beautifully described. =)

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