The color of the moon
From: "pam"
why is the moon sometimes orangish-red looking?
Nick was the first to send us this answer:
The color of the moon can depend on how much sun is
hitting it from behind the earth or how much smog there is in the
air when you look at the moon.
KJ shared these thoughts:
The Moon appears red sometimes for the
same reason the sky is orangish red at sunset, or blue during the
day. The suns light hits the gasses in the atmosphere at different
angles and we see it a different angles also. We just see it as a
different part of the rainbow of light.
TB faithfully answered with this:
The Moon appears white most of the time because it
reflects the sunlight falling on it. In the morning and evening the
Moon may appear red due to the bending of the reflected light in the
Earth's atmosphere.
Michelle shared this information with us:
Orangeish-red moon- The moon's
visibility is due to the fact that the sun's light will reflect off
the moon's surface back to us, and into your eyes. Sometimes it is
red because the sun's light has passed through our atmosphere before
hitting the moon (will occur tomorrow night in an eclipse, Nov 8th).
Sometimes the angle the moon is at causes the light to cross our
atmosphere at a low angle which can also give it a red color. But
mostly, it's our atmosphere that is to blame.
peep muttered this:
the moon is reddish-orange because of the light it
is reflecting from the earth.
ColorMe came up with this:
for the question about why the moon sometimes looks
different colors, what happens is that the pollution from us people
is in the air and from that the pollution does not let all of the
light rays pass and sometimes it distorts the light rays and so the
light rays that come to our eyes is not what it started out as
bigjason believed this:
dust. when the moon is low on the horizon the light
goes through so many particles of dust it becomes tinted. the sun is
the same. the sun is mostly white and only appears orange due to the
dust and pollution in the air.
C.H.U.D. shared these views:
This usually happens during an
eclipse. Light bounces off the Earth
before it hits the moon. The atmosphere scatters blue light more
than
red light (why the sky is blue) and so what comes out the other side
is
red (why sunsets are red). This reddish light bounces off the moon,
comes back to Earth and goes into your eyes.
Bill Anderson finished off with this:
The moon is sometimes orange/red looking because of
"Raleigh scattering". This occurs when there is dust or smoke in the
atmosphere, scattering light closer to the blue end of the spectrum
and permitting light closer to the red end to pass through the
atmosphere. A similar effect can be achieved by shining a torch or
flashlight through soapy water.
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