On May 16, one of the most spectacular astronomical phenomena will take place: a total lunar eclipse. We tell you here everything you need to know about this phenomenon, which will not be repeated until November 8 of this year and will not be visible from Spain and in Latin America it will only be visible from Mexico. In fact, from Spain and South America we will not enjoy an eclipse like this again until March 2025 , so you are interested in paying attention.
The eclipse will begin around 1:30 am UTC (+2 hours in mainland Spain, -3 hours in Buenos Aires and -5 hours in Mexico City) and will end at 6:50 am UTC. However, the Moon will be completely behind the Earth’s shadow between 3:30 UTC and 4:53 UTC, so that in Spain it will be visible before dawn (and in the northeastern third of the country the eclipse will not end). , as the Moon will hide behind the horizon before this happens). In Central and South America the eclipse can be enjoyed in its entirety , without being interrupted by its setting or departure.
But what exactly should we see? During the first hour of the eclipse we should see the Moon dimming slightly as it enters Earth’s twilight zone, the area where the planet blocks part of the Sun’s disk , but not all of it. Within an hour, the Moon will enter Earth’s umbra , with more and more of its surface completely deprived of sunlight. This completely shaded region will grow until it occupies the entirety of our satellite. At that moment the totality of the eclipse will begin, which will last almost 1 hour and 25 minutes. During this time the moon will barely shine, but will take on a reddish hue, due to the scattering of sunlight by the Earth’s atmosphere.
When this is finished, we will see how the Earth’s shadow leaves the moon on the opposite side from which it came , taking just over an hour to do so. At the end, the Moon will remain slightly darkened for about 55 more minutes, during which it will recover its usual brightness corresponding to the full moon phase. Although lunar eclipses are relatively common , occurring about two to three times a year , total lunar eclipses are more rare, occurring less than half the time. In addition, these eclipses are only visible from a certain part of the globe , so when the opportunity presents itself, it is important to take advantage of it.
These eclipses, in addition to being a spectacle in themselves, are a fantastic and direct proof of the sphericity of the Earth . What we will observe on the 16th is a phenomenon that has no possible explanation under the premises of flat earthing. The shadow of the Earth in its journey across the lunar surface will present a curved shape , corresponding to the shadow of a spherical planet and not flat. Even though a disk could cast the same shadow as a sphere, if the light source is directly facing the disk, this could not happen in all lunar eclipses, but only in some of them (besides not even the The flat-earther corpus itself tries to use these arguments to defend its hypotheses, instead resorting to an undetectable “ shadowy object ” to explain it).
In addition to the shape of the Earth, we will also be able to observe the consequences of sunlight passing through our atmosphere on its way to the Moon. This light , passing through the atmosphere at a very low inclination, will be scattered , keeping only the longest wavelengths, corresponding to red light, which will be the only ones capable of surviving the journey and hitting the Moon. This is of course the same reason why sunrises and sunsets have that color that characterizes them.
Thanks to the fact that the shadow of the Earth is about twice as large as the Moon at the distance of our satellite, we can enjoy such extensive total lunar eclipses (more than an hour and a half of totality) as well as partial eclipses and gloom as often as we do. If the Moon were further away, these eclipses would be much less common , plus we wouldn’t be able to enjoy total solar eclipses. In fact, this will happen in the distant future, hundreds of millions of years from now , due to the constant receding of the Moon. Our satellite is moving away from Earth at a rate of about 4 centimeters per year. Rhythm that may seem insignificant, but with the passage of geological and astronomical times, it accumulates and becomes significant.
If you go out to the field to try to witness this eclipse and take some pictures, do not hesitate to tag us on social networks . We’d love to see your snapshots.
REFERENCES:
Astronomical information – Lunar Eclipse of May 16, 2022, National Geographic Institute, https://astronomia.ign.es/web/guest/eclipse-de-luna-16-de-mayo-de-2022
