Editing Lunar eclipse (section)

== Blood moon ==
{{see also|Blood moon prophecy}}
[[File:Full Eclipse of the Moon as seen in from Irvine, CA, USA (52075715442) (cropped).jpg|thumb|Totality during the [[May 2022 lunar eclipse|lunar eclipse of 15 May 2022]]. Direct sunlight is being blocked by the [[Earth]], and the only light reaching it is sunlight [[Atmospheric refraction|refracted]] by Earth's atmosphere, producing a reddish color.]]

Certain lunar eclipses have been referred to as "blood moons" in popular articles but this is not a scientifically recognized term.<ref name="Sappenfield">{{Cite news |last=Sappenfield |first=Mark |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2014/0413/Blood-Moon-to-arrive-Monday-night.-What-is-a-Blood-Moon |title=Blood Moon to arrive Monday night. What is a Blood Moon? |date=13 April 2014 |work=[[The Christian Science Monitor]] |access-date=8 February 2018}}</ref> This term has been given two separate, but overlapping, meanings.

The meaning usually relates to the reddish color a totally eclipsed Moon takes on to observers on Earth.<ref name="Nigro">{{Cite book |last=Nigro |first=Nicholas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iwim2lHciHAC&pg=PA214 |title=Knack Night Sky: Decoding the Solar System, from Constellations to Black Holes |date=2010 |publisher=[[Globe Pequot]] |isbn=978-0-7627-6604-8 |pages=214–5}}</ref> As [[sunlight]] penetrates the [[atmosphere of Earth]], the gaseous layer [[Extinction (astronomy)#Atmospheric extinction|filters]] and [[atmospheric refraction|refracts]] the rays in such a way that the green to violet wavelengths on the [[visible spectrum]] [[light scattering|scatter]] more strongly than the red, thus giving the Moon a reddish cast.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/sep/28/all-you-need-to-know-about-the-blood-moon |title=All you need to know about the 'blood moon' |date=28 September 2015 <!-- 09.07 BST --> |work=theguardian}}</ref> This is possible because the rays from the Sun are able to wrap around the Earth and reflect off the Moon.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Jeanna |first=Bryner |date=13 May 2022 |title=Why does the moon turn red during a total lunar eclipse? |url=https://www.space.com/why-moon-turns-red-total-lunar-eclipse |access-date=5 January 2023 |website=Space.com |language=en}}</ref>