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Lunar eclipse to cast a brilliant orange glow over Washtenaw County

Taking advantage of a total lunar eclipse in January 2019, astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have measured the amount of ozone in Earth’s atmosphere. This method serves as a proxy for how they will observe Earth-like planets transiting in front of other stars in search of life. Our planet’s perfect alignment with the Sun and Moon during a total lunar eclipse mimics the geometry of a transiting terrestrial planet with its star. In a new study, Hubble did not look at Earth directly. Instead, astronomers used the Moon as a mirror that reflects the sunlight transmitted through Earth’s atmosphere which was then captured by Hubble. This is the first time ultraviolet light passing through Earth’s atmosphere was observed from space and the first time a total lunar eclipse was captured from a space telescope.
ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser
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ESA/Hubble

A total lunar eclipse will paint the Moon over the local area a brilliant orange color this coming early Friday morning.

Some residents may have noticed that the Moon is brighter than usual the past night or two. That’s because the Moon is aligning itself perfectly with the Sun as more of its light shines upon the Moon.

Norbert Vance is the Sherzer Observatory Director at Eastern Michigan University. He says the lunar eclipse’s color comes from sunlight meeting the Earth’s shadow.

“It’s like a thousand sunsets of the Earth being projected back onto the Moon. So, it’s the sunlight passing through the Earth’s atmosphere that’s curved and passes on to the surface of the Moon giving it that color.”

Vance says he predicts the skies will be partly cloudy early Friday morning. Then, from 2:26 to 3:31 AM, the sky will be illuminated deep orange as the eclipse reaches totality.

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Ana Longoria is a news reporter for WEMU.
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