Watch a Total Lunar Eclipse (NASA Science Live)

[Music] foreign [Music] [Music] hello and welcome to another episode of NASA science live an opportunity for you to interact with NASA scientists and have your questions answered in real time I'm your host joyung and tonight we are live at NASA's Goddard space flight center as the total lunar eclipse is nearing totality so it's a little bit overcast here right now but luckily we're going to be taking you to different locations with clear skies throughout the show so if you have any questions at all about the total lunar eclipse all by NASA is heading back to the Moon send your questions in using the hashtag asknassa or wherever you're watching the show today and as you can see we will have a constant live feed of the lunar eclipse so thank you so much to our friends at time and date for providing that feed so as you can see there's a lot of excitement in the air and we have a lot in store for you as we track the lunar eclipse from North and South America and parts of Europe as well we have NASA scientists answering your questions and we also have feeds of tell us Scopes dotted all around the world that are fixated on tonight's Celestial event and there's a chance that you too can see the lunar eclipse as well so if you do snap a photo and start with us on social media or wherever you're watching tonight's episode um so there's yeah uh there's a lot to talk about and we have a lot of questions coming in online but first let's go over to my co-host James traily who can tell us where we are on the eclipse right now and what's in store for us in tonight's total lunar eclipse hey James how's it going over there good there are some extreme micro climates out there but unfortunately just a couple feet away from you and the other side of the building it's also overcast and rainy so not holding out you know for a good view from here release but we're tracking it all across the world the view behind me right here is from Cartersville Georgia where there's a little bit of cloud cover but we've got a really nice view coming into Focus tracking this from around the world as well we got some feeds from Morocco all over Spain and it's just going to be a phenomenal show to view from there so is this your first ever eclipse um well the last lunar eclipse I saw was in 2019 in uh Mexico City actually and it was an amazing experience what about yourself it's been I think at least a decade for me it's been a really long time and I guess I'm gonna have to keep waiting as well but live vicariously through the amazing fees that we've got out here as well so how many feeds do we have tonight yeah quite a few I think I'm tracking at least eight here so far there's some that are kind of cycling through for me as well too from parts of the west coast of the United States out in La we've got a really cool view from Ontario Canada as well a lot of places are fighting with a little bit of cloud cover so we'll kind of see how that develops over the night as well one of the views I'm tracking as well is from Rome Italy where as the night goes on the moon is going to get lower and lower and the Horizon we might even get a view of the Coliseum as well which would be fantastic as well but at least for right now let's learn a little bit more about the science behind a lunar eclipse if you looked at the Moon over the course of a few weeks you'd probably notice that it looks slightly different every day the change in its shadow is based on where the Moon is in its orbit we call this cycle the phases of the moon and it occurs roughly once a month at least twice a year however something quite different happens the moon passes through the shadow cast by the Earth causing it to look extremely unusual for a short period of time from the earth the moon will appear to darken and turn a deep red before eventually returning to normal this is called a lunar eclipse if we were to look at what happens from space during an eclipse it would go something like this first the moon passes through What's called the penumbra where the Sun's light is only partially obscured this results in only a slight darkening of the Moon as the moon continues along its path however it enters What's called the Umbra where all direct light from the sun is blocked but if the Sun is blocked why does the moon turn red when light from the sun goes by the side of the earth it passes through a long and thick layer of Earth's atmosphere shorter wavelengths of sunlight like blue are scattered by the atmosphere so by the time the light has finished its trip to the moon more of the longer wavelengths like red are left over on the earth the same thing happens at Sunset as the ground you stand on gradually passes in tonight as the eclipse ends the moon leaves the Umbra returns to its normal color and then leaves the pen number of brightening and resuming its original cycle overall the whole process lasts only from a few minutes to a few hours so you'll have to be quick if you want to see it but as long as you're willing to stay awake you'll catch the moon as you won't see it too often so right now I'm joined by science visualizer and our telescope Guru for tonight's events Ernie Wright hi James Ernie thanks so much for joining us uh it's a pleasure to be here it's a little bit of a cloudy night but we're still you know tracking this from across the world here right now we can actually see a shadow starting to creep a little bit across the moon can you tell us where we are right now in the process right I mean we're a little bit more than 50 covered in the partial phase and this is where the Umbra is starting to track across the moon um in this view it's a little bit dark a little bit farther out because of the exposure that they're using um but over the next half hour or so we should expect this Darkness to completely spread across the moon uh and then when they change the exposure because the moon's so dim during totality hopefully we'll see some red color there too very excited about that and if you're keeping score from home and you want to sync up your events you're outside at the right moment there's a good chance that you can capture this from your own backyard so we want you out there sharing your picks with us as well we've got the schedule up here could you just kind of walk us through some of the highlights right so um before we came on even um the partial began and that's the point where the Umbra is starting to cover the moon um about halfway through our program at 11 29 uh totality will begin and that's when the moon all the brightness will stop dazzling your eyes and you can see sort of that dark red color at 11 29 maximum eclipse this is when the moon is in the middle of the shadow in the deepest part of the shadow that occurs about 10 minutes after we're done here at 12 11 Eastern and the eclipse continues for another 45 minutes or so yeah so it's a longer one 85 minutes or so this is not usually the case usually they're pretty short so you got some time to grab a coffee get your camera set up you know why is why is this one different I guess from the rest in terms of length uh it has a lot to do with whether or not it's going through the middle of the Shadow or kind of skimming along the edge this eclipse is in the top 25 percent of eclipses for duration so we're pretty close to the middle it gives everybody lots of chances to go outside if it's cloudy where you are right now wait a couple of minutes and try again yes we're just tracking this now the conditions are changing so quickly the cloud cover is kind of moving over and as I mentioned we really do want you to capture this moment for us as well from your own backyard what are some tips for people to get that Best Shot you know with whatever camera they're using you know even their cell phone right I mean for for one thing it should be pointed out that we don't need any special equipment to see it you can go outside with your naked eye and you can also see it with binoculars but if you want to take a photograph you'll need longer exposure and you'll want to probably set your camera not to night mode because if you set it to night mode it will try to brighten everything and you're only trying to take a picture of the Moon if you're able to zoom you should do that the Moon is surprisingly small in these pictures so if you just take a regular photograph you'll get three pixels of moon and lots of dark sky so right now you have your telescope with us which is getting a great shot of the studio lights but you know what is it actually what would it be doing out in the field if you're actually having out there right and I brought this in um so that if we had clear skies we could actually get a feed from here but this is just a three inch refractor there are two basic kinds of telescope a refractor has a big lens for Gathering light and a reflector has a big mirror and then I've attached to the telescope just a regular DSLR and there's a special bit that mates them together but this allows the camera to look through the telescope as if the telescope were a big telephoto lens and what we were planning to do if we had clear skies was use the Live View mode on the camera and the camera has HDMI out and so if you had a crowd and you didn't want to line them all up and look through it individually you could put a TV right next to the telescope and and everybody could see it simultaneously just like we're looking at it here yeah and stuff is really starting to move a little bit more here now even since we started talking it seems like there's a little bit more coverage as well too yeah um and in fact as time goes on uh from minute to minute you should be able to see some changes in the shadow it's going to move very quickly particularly when we get close to 11 29 you know the last little bit of bright moon will be there and as you're watching it you can see it being covered up which is pretty cool what can we expect some of the kind of reddish color to start creeping in here as well um almost before totality starts what you really need to do is kind of get rid of all that very bright moon because that sort of dazzling your eye um this is thousands of times dimmer but once you get into totality your eye will adjust you know your eye has this sort of automatic exposure control and you'll be able to see that red color amazing and what is the next one as well next lunar eclipse here from November so anybody who's missing out um you know six months from now we'll have another one to look forward to plenty of time for this one tonight still too like we said 85 minutes for you to be able to view this one so a really good window for you to get you know nice coffee it's a little bit late here maybe bundle up a little bit if it's cold where you are but in the meantime I understand that Joy has some members of the Artemis program with her to talk a bit more about our next mission to the Moon hi yes so Earth's moon is the only place beyond Earth that humans have set foot on and with NASA's Artemis program we're planning to take the first woman a first person of color back to the lunar surface so to tell us more about that I'm joined by two with two NASA experts uh Dr Ryan Watkins who is a program scientist at NASA headquarters and Dr Vishnu vishwanathan who is a research scientist at Nasa Goddard thank you both so much for joining us today thanks for having us yeah thanks so can you tell us a little bit about your roles and what you do at NASA yeah I'll just start off by saying it's a very exciting time to be a lunar scientist at Nasa so at headquarters um in my office we manage the lunar Discovery and exploration program and so under this program Falls um the various programs that are sending scientific and Technology development instruments to the Moon via commercial Partners as well as on various International missions we also do all the integration of Artemis science within NASA's directorates and yeah so for my role specifically one of the things I do is just make sure that our scientific instruments can meet their science objectives and have everything they need to do that it's one of many many things we do but yeah so getting science instruments to the moon and Artemis is a large part of what we do hey um I'm a research scientist here at Nasa got it and I primarily use um like the data sets that are obtained from Sonic scientific instruments that we have sent to space primarily to understand um the interior structure of planetary bodies especially the moon and other planetary bodies as well to put together a puzzle regarding uh you know how regarding the evolution and formation of the solar system in general uh you know I asked several questions like uh uh like you know how is uh the moon like was the moon always uh how it is as we see it in the sky today or was it oriented in a different manner compared to you know several billion years ago or you know like you know does it have a solid inner core within it like like we know for the Earth and um so I I'm facilitated by several data sets that we've collected such as the Luna laser ranging data where we fire lasers to these mirrors that were left over on the um you know the lunar surface the new the lunar near Side by our astronauts and some of the Rovers and um as well as the gravity field of the Moon that was mapped in high resolution by um in the NASA Grail Mission as well as lunar topography data for example that's obtained from the laser ultimate on the the lro spacecraft which is now in orbit for like what 13 years now so yeah this is just a great time as she said to be a lunar scientist and I'm really excited to be here so can we talk a bit about what NASA's plans are for back so we're going back to the moon so we're taking science instruments a river and then humans yeah so we're actually doing a lot to get ready to go back to the Moon right now um like you said one of the first things we're doing um besides lro is is sending scientific instruments as well as technology demonstrations to the Moon via the commercial lunar payload Services Program or eclipse for short um and so this is um NASA's way of rapidly acquiring commercial delivery services to the lunar surface so we have about seven of these on Deck right now with over 40 instruments that it will be flying to the moon and it's part of this is the Rover you mentioned Viper so Viper will be roving around looking for volatiles specifically things such as water ice and permanently shadowed regions on the moon so these are areas that either neither or never get sunlight or rarely get any sunlight so good places for water ice to to be contained so it will be prospecting for for these areas you know how much is there what type of deposits do we see and then how could we possibly use that for for future human missions to the Moon yes and then culminating with Artemis and in our first woman and first person of color back to the surface of the Moon and this is a question for you Vishnu so you study the Moon from Earth is studying uh the Moon from Earth during the lunar eclipse particularly exciting for your type of research oh yes absolutely um so for example right now like during the full moon phase right uh the surface of the Moon is really hot it gets heated up something like 250 degrees Fahrenheit or you know comparatively like or 120 degrees Celsius so uh these mirrors that I was talking about on the moon these are not optimal temperatures for you know the moon to operate in and so we so the performance of these the optical performance of these retro reflectors as they're called um they diminished with time right so we want this kind of a window this Eclipse offers us this time window wherein you know the moon passes through the shadow of the earth so which gives you know these Optical instruments to kind of cool down and this enables us to make measurements right and so what science we can do from that is that you know when when when this particular configuration that we are in right now which is you know the sun earth and the moon this enables us to make very high Precision tests of um you know the universality of free fall uh so um during the Apollo 15 I believe um the commander uh David Scott he he dropped um a feather and a hammer at the same time to demonstrate that uh to show that you know all objects fall in the external gravitational field at the same time and similarly what we're doing here with this laser ranging measurements is that uh we're trying to make use of the Moon and the Earth as test bodies in this gravitational field and uh so as to measure the falling of you know this Earth and Moon system into the gravitational field of the Sun so by measuring and comparing uh what we predict with Theory versus what we observe with these laser ranging observations we are able to put a number to those limits on how accurately was you know the theory of universality of free fall based on which you know Einstein formulated his uh theory of General Nativity so this is really a fascinating time and I I just spoke with one of the um uh one of The Observers in Grass Station in France and uh if the weather is clear there they might be collecting some amazing data for us to analyze yeah I think Vishnu will if you don't already know I'll be very excited to know that we're sending more of these retro reflectors before the eclipse so you're going to have lots more science oh yeah they're not really excited about that opportunity great that's fantastic so the last time we set a crude mission to the moon was about 50 years ago so why is it important that we send humans back to the Moon yeah there's a lot of really important reasons to send humans back so the last time we were there was with Apollo and most of the Apollo or sorry all of the Apollo missions were kind of in the equatorial region of the moon so with Artemis we'll be going down to the South polar region and much like on Earth if you travel to another country you know often you know the Rocks there are completely different there's just a whole new area so also on the moon you go down to the South Pole there's only rocks of different compositions it's going to be possibly colder in some areas there's a lot of um different types of science questions that we will answer there also we'll just be developing the the Technologies and demonstrating the things we need to to live for longer periods of time on another planetary body and really helping prepare ourselves to go to Mars so talking about um long-term space travel we had some really exciting news the other day scientists had successfully grown plants from regolith which is lunar soil what does that mean for future astronauts yeah yeah so for those who didn't hear we grew our first plants in lunar regolith and this is really exciting scientists hadn't done this before lunar regolith doesn't have nutrients and water like like we have here on Earth so to readily grow plants so there's still some work we have to do to understand why the plants grew differently than they did in you know typical Earth-like conditions but yeah it's really exciting it could open up a lot of possibilities for us to potentially grow our own plants when we get back to the Moon so we're nearing totality um have either of you seen a lunar eclipse before not that I can remember no I have not either so it's really really we're all really excited in the studio today so let's dig into some questions we're getting online on social media um so let's uh see who we what questions we have uh we have a question from A Midsummer on Twitter and they ask is there a delay in real time for data from the Moon like how there is an eight million minute delay from the Sun um yes and um so this is precisely the time that we measure with the laser data right so it takes 2.5 ish seconds uh for a light beam to go from Earth bounce back the um you know these mirrors and come back uh to those telescopes so which means that you know one way would be like half of that value 1.25 um seconds wow pretty fast compared to you know the eight minute yeah much faster and so on the next we have a next question from Trevor on Twitter and they asked why does the moon turn red during an eclipse yeah so the moon we call this a blood moon when it turns red during an eclipse and this is because as as the Earth is blocking the Sun's light the sun's sunlight is still passing through Earth's atmosphere and when this happens you're kind of Bluer wavelengths of light gets scattered by Earth's atmosphere but the red wavelengths of light still pass through and that's the wavelength of light you're seeing reflected off the surface of the Moon it's much like reflecting back Earth's sunrises and sunsets in a sense okay so our next question is from musical wolves on YouTube and they ask why does a total lunar eclipse sorry what does a total lunar eclipse look like from the International Space Station well I think they will definitely enjoy a more clearer view because you know there's no atmosphere up there right from the uh International Space Station so I think it's going to look like how we see it on Earth but just beautiful much more prettier because you know it's without without all the atmosphere in between all the clouds like we have today here uh and Sydney asks um why are we going back to the Moon that's a great question um some of the reasons I mentioned before um the different variety of science questions that we can answer um you know the moon hasn't really I've been there done that place um the South polar region is is a whole new area we haven't explored yet there are resources there that weren't really available to us um for the Apollo missions again because of the presence of water ice in the South polar area so we can really demonstrate how we can pull out these resources and use them for for water or even for making Rocket Fuel that can then send us onto Mars but but yeah so a lot of it is is you know the science and then also just developing these Technologies and getting that experience we need in order to go on to places like Mars and Beyond okay so our next question is from Denise Wright an Earth and space science teacher from Myrtle Beach in South Carolina and they ask how much does the surface temperature of the Moon drop on that side that we are seeing during this eclipse oh okay um I think it's about a few uh tens of uh Calvin um at least you'll get that duration over which um you know I know the the entire it takes about when during a full moon phase it goes up to like 250 degree Fahrenheit or which is you know it's like um 120 Celsius but I think yeah I'm not very familiar with the exact value because you know we this is a very long Eclipse which means like you know it's it has sufficient time to cool down but the the it takes time for the lunar regolith to respond to it you know there's some thermal inertia to it so um yeah I'd say a couple of degrees to as a guess yeah I don't have a better guess okay so we have a question from Trevor polinga on Twitter uh and they are asking on behalf of the pulling good kids has anyone ever been on the moon during a lunar eclipse great question I believe the answer is no I don't I don't know if one happened during Apollo or not I'd actually I'm not entirely sure but I imagine if if they had been they probably would have gotten a good image for us I think um you know what what they would be seeing if during the lunar eclipse is like uh just like during the solar eclipse you know when when you get the totality we see that annular ring around the Moon similarly you can expect you know when we during a lunar eclipse if you were to be on the surface of the Moon looking at the Earth it would be such a fantastic view because you'll see uh you know not that Horizon Sunset that we we see on Earth but you know it'd be like a ring of sunset right around around the around the earth with you know the sun in the background I think it's a spectacular view I'd you know I'd I'd love to be there in that place to see that view yeah so that would be so that would be like a red ring around Earth is that what you mean yes I think so yeah that's how it would look like I believe um only right you know at Goddard wood you know I'm sure he has made a simulation on this that shows that particular video you know check that out okay so on we have a question from um when we go back to the moon will we set it up as a permanent settlement yeah so so we are looking at establishing a lunar base on the moon you know having more you know permanent or semi-permanent architecture uh that we can um then go to at a more frequent basis you know send or you know cruise on a regular basis to habitats and then have long duration Rovers and things like that so yes it's definitely something that NASA is working towards oh fantastic okay so our next question is from anab on Twitter and they ask is a lunar Mission launch possible during a lunar eclipse I mean not during the launch but while it's in orbit and maneuvering to get into the lunar orbits I don't see uh a reason why not um yeah yeah I mean I think communication with Earth is one of the most important things and then good conditions to launch offers so the lunar eclipse shouldn't affect those things yeah so do you think there's a chance um finding future lunar missions to do for that to happen yeah I think it'd be really exciting I mean yeah you know there's cool visuals and probably in school science you know that you could be done okay so our next question is from snazzy zazzy on Twitter and they ask with the awesomest crew deal with any abnormalities if they were on the moon during a lunar eclipse for example extra radiation from the Sun um I think one of the difficulties that they would potentially face is you know the lack of light right because you know you have a good amount of sunlight coming in um if they were to be in the you know in your side and suddenly it would be like a you know a diminished light or a much dimmer light than you know they are enjoying too and I just hope they're not in one of those abundantly shattered reasons when well you know when you're doing that so but I think I think that's that's about it yeah and I think one thing one thing to remember too is that generally these eclipses are not very long you're the one tonight is is quite a bit longer than what we typically see but usually they're on the order of a few minutes so you know even again yeah light the lack of light could be probably the biggest issue to be concerned with okay so we're going to be taking more of your questions later on in the show but we are nearing totality now which is really really exciting so let's head back to James to see where we are what we're seeing on the feeds and what other people around the world are seeing yeah Joy this is the big moment you know if you're keeping score at home or just about four minutes away from the main event totality and if I swipe back to the screen here we've been tracking this View for the past couple minutes here in orzazat Morocco they have a beautiful clear night there in the desert right now you can see just the last little sliver of brightness here before the Moon is eclipsed here for us and we're starting to get some really interesting reddish color creeping across and just before we went on you're telling me something interesting about the times that we're displaying there there's you know they're not down to the exact second you know we have them at like 11 29. why is that you know not precise for us right you would think that we know the geometry of the Shadow and we can just figure that out but it turns out that the width of the Shadow at the Moon is affected by the atmosphere and of course the atmosphere on Earth is constantly changing um it enlarges the Shadow by about one to two percent but for each Eclipse it's a little bit different so when we do the calculations we use an average value but um we don't know precisely what that number is going to be until it actually happens and this is actually something that um citizen scientists can help with um while the shadow is moving across you can time when that edge hits each crater and you can do that at the end of totality as well and this sort of pins down the size of that shadow and so I mean I think it's probably surprising to people that we were not certain to the millisecond when these things are going to happen but you know uh science is a little bit messy sometimes and and we don't even fully understand all of the effects that are changing the size of that shadow so it's it's an ongoing question yeah and we've been watching them kind of adjusting the exposure a bit of the camera here to get this really dark area of the Moon and a couple of our other feeds as well have been kind of doing the same pattern as well here too can you tell us a little bit about this red color we're seeing starting to come up here if I'm understanding correctly it's a projection of all the sunrises and sunsets it absolutely is um imagine how beautiful that would be to be on the moon and see it um yeah this is a color that's coming from all the sunrises and sunsets it's the it's the light filtered through the atmosphere um all the blue light is scattered away the red light is sort of refracted into that total shadow um and so that's why it's appearing red it's very possible that the color of this eclipse is somewhat darker than usual because of an eruption in Tonga in December and January the number of aerosols of particles in the atmosphere can affect the darkness and so there's a scale that we rate the darkness the scale goes from zero to four the scale was invented by an astronomer named danjon right um and so that's another thing that people can do they can go outside and sort of Judge the darkness of this compared to other eclipses and this one's looking a little dark yeah if you're a bit luckier than us at home and you don't have cloud cover what kind of things can you see with the naked eye just looking up at the moon at this point right you know I I think even with the naked eye you can distinguish the dark parts of the Moon from the brighter Parts the dark parts are called Mare and these are places where lava has infilled large depressions so this is tranquility where Apollo 11 landed and serenity is next to it and Ibrahim is up here these are basalts these are like volcanic rocks and they're very dark you think of uh black beaches in Hawaii so you have a geology background you know about this um and then the the lighter parts are called Highlands and these are older they're more heavily cratered but they're not filled with lava and so that's something you can notice right away just with the naked eye and looking at my watch right now it is 11 29 here on the East Coast this is the moment we've all been waiting for totality here there's just that last little bit of sliver of light here so we're just gonna sit back and watch this moment happen wish we could be doing this from outside here in the rocket oh my God it would be really nice but you know this is still an incredible view here from orzazad well and one of the things that you'll notice I mean this bright part is just because the difference in exposure so this part of the moon right here is closer to the center of the Shadow and that's where it's darker so throughout totality you're going to see the sort of gradient from one side to the other and so if you're at home you know this is the moment to run outside keep us in your back pocket listening on your headphones as you run out there to take some pictures for some play-by-play but what are some tips for this moment you kind of went over some earlier here but you know this is the moment to take a picture and share with us wherever you're watching this right well and the lovely thing about a total lunar eclipse is that it lasts for a little while so this is an opportunity just to get outside um it's an outdoor activity you bring a lawn chair and you kind of sit back and you think about the fact that we're in the earth's Shadow every night but this night you are sharing that shadow with a body that's a quarter of a million miles away it's the same Shadow which is kind of cool and I can't help but think about what that view would look like on the moon you know imagine if you're an astronaut up there observing that I I yeah I would love that I think it was mentioned a little earlier um a question came in about whether or not Apollo follow or or any astronaut had seen a total solar total lunar eclipse from the Moon almost um a plan for one of the Apollo missions was to leave the TV camera pointed at the Earth and an eclipse is going to take place a few days later but the camera malfunctioned and that didn't have that opportunity so it's another of the thousand reasons to go back um I I think the opportunity to see it from there would just be amazing yeah and some questions are coming in from social media here as well too James itso on Twitter asks how often does this type of lunar eclipse occur so total lunar eclipses happen about every six months but they're not always visible from where you are the nice thing about lunar eclipses is that half the Earth can see them but it might not be the half you happen to be in so mostly every six months sometimes it's five months in between and sometimes you can have two in a row and occasionally that six month pattern is sort of broken and what you get is sort of partial and penumbral and less interesting eclipses for a little while and then suddenly you get a string of totals again amazing and you've had a chance to really study the Moon up close with some of the missions from NASA like the lunar reconnaissance Orbiter to get some really cool visualizations can you tell us a bit more about some of those types of things right so this is actually what I do here I've been working with lunar Constance Orbiter data since it launched in 2009 and lro is creating global maps of the Moon that are way more detailed than anything we had before I think people had the impression that since Apollo we had the moon all figured out and we actually knew almost nothing about it I mean we we landed in six pinpoints on the surface and that's what we got from Apollo um but lro has been mapping the entire Moon we have millions of pictures of the surface we have a very detailed shape of the surface we have a record of how the temperature changes on the surface and this also tells us something about we got another oh wow yeah yeah movies coming in here this is from San Diego looks like a beautiful clear night there as well too which you know we got some questions here on social media Robert Schloss is asking does you know this Eclipse here affect the tide San Diego they'd be concerned about without Wilson surfing you know how's that going to affect their their surface occasionally I mean there are there are King tides and these are things that happen during full moons and new moons um the eclipse isn't special in that in that respect but it is one of those times where you might get a little bit of a title effect but it won't be enormous you don't have to worry about um you know tidal waves or anything uh silly like that yeah yeah let's check out some of the other fees here too so this is San Diego I'm going to check back on Rome which they look like they have a little bit of cloud cover we've got some buildings there you're mentioning that if this was a little bit clearer you'd be able to see the moon you know perched right there yeah because the Moon is setting in Rome um it would be low in the sky and so that was an opportunity to maybe catch the moon with all of this beautiful architecture yeah they're adjusting a little bit maybe it'll come into Focus here in a second while they're doing that let's let's scroll down here and check out some of the other ones here this is one from Cartersville Georgia the first one we I opened with tonight here too they got some beautiful red color here too and so there's quite a gradient of the color here as well you're mentioning that scale the digital scale as well right um yeah and um so you can tell right away that the part of the Moon that's deepest in the shadow is over on this side this is something else that you can see with the naked eye and it um you know the feeds don't fully capture it if you're able to go outside and see it with your naked eye the color is amazing um something I've noticed with a couple of these total lunar eclipses is that the Moon looks weirdly almost transparent it looks like you can see space behind it it's not really but it's an effect of that sort of color gradient and the dark red and the surprising darkness of the Moon I mean this is Right Way darker than a normal full moon um so it just looks weird and yeah that's one of the things that's fun about it exactly yeah it's different every time and we were like we were saying we were noticing the settings of people's cameras kind of changing here to capture that Darkness it was really Stark I mean there's parts that were just completely blown out just to really capture you know the darkness right and so let's check back on that room and see if they've kind of pulled this up again still looks a little bit cloudy here but we're back to the Morocco one here which this has been kind of the the winner of the night for me I've I've really love this view that it really has really beautiful weather yeah um Taiko is very visible right here um this is a crater this is a young crater um in the southern hemisphere of the Moon and you can see the Rays in full moon but during a total eclipse they look even more spectacular I think so a question on Twitter which is kind of a tricky question here so Abby asks what's the rarest moon event that's the kind of thing that you want to go back in the almanac and sort of check through it um but a kind of unusual thing happened just six months ago the November Eclipse was a 99 partial oh wow it was so close yeah um just edging it there just getting over to the edge so it would have looked like this but with a bright sort of limb there and it never quite made it into the shadow that's pretty unusual um you know certain solar eclipses are unusual too but to really answer that question we'd have to go back to the records and and find out what the craziest thing was yeah yeah one more question here from from Twitter as well here Amber asks have there ever been both solar and lunar eclipses in the same year yes absolutely in fact that's not uncommon at all um the every six months is actually uh when we're in Eclipse seasons and so both solar and lunar eclipses can happen there was a partial solar eclipse just two weeks ago okay and that was visible in the southern hemisphere if I remember correctly but That's Not Unusual at all in fact it's very common to have them paired together so solar eclipse either two weeks before or two weeks after a total lunar eclipse and we've been talking about the moon quite a bit obviously throughout the night here but let's learn a bit more about why we're going to be going back to the Moon just to study so much more science we are going the history of this agency is marked with broken barriers once viewed as impossible with science fiction turned reality with innovations that have spun Industries all their own and with demonstrations of Peace for all humankind we soar in the skies of our home planet we maintain a human presence just outside of gravity and we touch points all across the solar system and beyond we're going back to the Moon if this is why the Moon is a treasure Trove of science it holds opportunities for us to make discoveries about our home planet about our sun and a better solar system the wealth of knowledge that he gleaned from the moon will inspire a new generation of thought and action without fail every major program and mission NASA has invested in has led to Technologies and capabilities that have shaped our culture the breakthroughs of the Artemis era will Define Our Generation and the generations to follow the tens of thousands of jobs associated with propelling us to the Moon today are just the beginning of a lunar economy that will see hundreds of thousands of new jobs developed around the world this is not an ambition of one entity or one country the exploration of the moon is a shared effort woven together by a desire for the greater good why the moon because the missions of Tomorrow Will Be sparked by the accomplishments of the Artemis generation today because the ambition to go has already begun and because Mars is calling we need to learn what it takes to establish a community on another Cosmic Shore so let's Camp close before pushing out and so we go to the moon now not as a series of isolated missions but to build a community on and around the Moon capable of proving how to live on other worlds we'll use some lessons for more than 50 years of peaceful exploration to send a new generation to the lunar surface to stay we will anchor our efforts on the lunar South Pole to establish the artemis-based camp positioning us for long-term science and exploration of the lunar surface we will prove what it takes to assemble a complex ship in deep space we will perfect descending the option and returning from a distance service we will learn how humans can survive and thrive in a partial gravity environment improve spacesuit designs mobile habitats and with reconnaissance robots pre-positioning and relocating supplies the resources we find on this other worlds starting with finding water reps and purifying it to drinkable water and find that into hydrogen fulfilled and oxygen degree we will establish fission power plants on the surface of the Moon capable of supporting a growing community of efforts and we will expand the logistics supply chain to enable commercial and international Partners to resupply and refuel deep space outposts none of this is more easy again thanks a lot this kind of continuous lunar presence is a natural extension of all that we've learned in low earth orbit and what we will accomplish there will ensure the Monumental missions to Mars are within reach as we ready the launch of the first Artemis mission and as commercial companies ready their lunar Landers for the first private payload deliveries we have already begun to take the next step [Music] hello so we just had a look at all the feeds and the total lunar eclipse looks absolutely stunning what did you guys think it was amazing I guess oh I think when I first saw Morocco the defeats coming into Morocco I was like okay this is the winner for today but you just showed me another image from Rome and they just changed my mind and that's like really a reddish nice Hue across the entire Moon and such beautiful images yeah so we have a lot of questions online so let's dig in um let's see so we have a viewer who asks what kind of new and better equipment do you need to have to return to the moon and when will astronauts arrive on it yeah there's um a lot of different and new equipment or improved equipment that we're looking at for the moon um one of which I think I've mentioned a few times is that we're looking at using the resources that are on the moon we haven't done this before so all sorts of new technologies whether it's drills or just systems that can extract oxygen and water and things from the from the lunar regulator these are all new systems uh we're improving things like our Precision Landing you know how accurately can you land where you want to land um and how how well can you avoid obstacles like craters and boulders and things um so those are some things really The Landing but yeah different sampling techniques for the astronauts all sorts of new technologies um which is really exciting because these will be useful for Mars and also for our lives on Earth um as far as when they're getting there um NASA's targeting 2025 for our first grouped mission and so you mentioned it will be useful for us on Earth um could you tell us more yeah um I mean I don't have a lot of specific examples off the top of my head but um you know for the Apollo program for example we call them spin-offs or all these technologies that NASA developed for the the lunar program uh that then became useful and everything tennis shoes are a good example of one I don't know if you have any other examples you can think of off the top of your head something right now but yeah I think so um I think the the Tamil blankets that were used first the entire during the Apollo space program and the spaceways are being heavily used on Earth for a variety of purposes um and even these retro reflectors I'm sorry I keep going back to those Eternal reflectors that's what I do for work um so I uh you know when I explain it to some like a child what do I do I I I make them look at you know all these uh you know on the road as you travel when you shine your headlight at them it comes back right at you and those those are Miniature versions of the same thing but just that they're not space grade right they're not ready to go to space but yeah there's a whole lot of um you know equipments which were developed during the Space Race uh and uh you know the Apollo era which uh is being used right now on on Earth for to make our lives better fantastic so we have a question from Charlie couch from YouTube and they asked can you tell us the difference between a solar and lunar eclipse of course um so during a lunar eclipse what comes between uh you know the uh the Sun and the Moon is is the Earth so you know dude that's what we're witnessing today and similarly for the solar eclipse what we have in between the object in between is the moon um and it's not safe to look at um you know by eye uh the the solar eclipse but you know it's very safe to look at the moon so I encourage you all to go out and look at the Moon if you get a chance to yeah and what are the differences when you when you look in the sky because they look pretty they look pretty different right in in one of them you know you have the sun in the background so it could be a you know during the daylight right and then suddenly it goes all dim here on on earth when this is the solar eclipse and um um lunar eclipse you know they usually I mean to have a lunar eclipse you need a full moon uh right uh to get that configuration for that eclipse and so these are typically visible at night so that's one of the differences I can think of okay so we have a question from Jack and he asks how much do we know about The Far Side of the Moon mapping geography Etc has a satellite sustained a durable orbit around the moon in order to map the surface and has that ever been done uh yes great question uh so yes um Apollo obviously that those were all near side missions but we do know a lot about the far side as well we have the lunar reconnaissance Orbiter lro has been orbiting the moon for almost 13 years now um and yeah doing a lot of the mapping that was that was asked about mapping topography we had Grail that mapped the gravity data of the moon so we don't have you know we haven't had any surface missions from the US to The Far Side of the Moon we haven't returned those samples we have a lot of really great orbital instruments that tell us things about about the composition and the again the topography we know that there's not as many um uh volcanic areas on The Far Side of the Moon we know the crust is thicker uh I think the composition is a bit different but we don't really know why so there's a lot of good reasons to go go explore the far side as well okay and so Kelsey on Twitter asks my eight-year-old Nico is asking when is the Artemis Mission going to the moon great question Nico yeah so like depends on which art in this Mission you're talking about we'll have our our uncrewed demo um this year uh and then our our first astronauts will hopefully be on the surface in 2025. okay so our next question is from Tiffany on Twitter and they asked what is the Moon's core made of oh so um you know the moon score so if you it depends on how deep you're going right so we know from uh initially from again lunar laser ranging data uh by looking at orientation in space we kind of figured out uh by you know monitoring these retro reflectors we have about five of them we've been monitoring them very closely over a long period of time and we were able to you know reconstruct the orientation of the Moon predict it and compare with observations so when you stick in a liquid core in that model it it very well agrees with the data set and this is one of the um you know findings from lunar initially from the lunar laser ranging data but it was also later confirmed by you know re-analysis of seismic data that was collected from the Apollo Mission um so indeed it's made out of a liquid core but there is a um an expectation that there could potentially be also a solid inner core within that liquid core just like for the Earth and this is a currently you know uh in research and we still don't have a very strong evidence um uh suggesting that the moon has a solid core but some of the samples that were returned from you know the moon during the Apollo missions um they had Remnant magnetism in them and you know those are signs that at some point in time the moon had you know an active magnetic field and so that potentially magnetized these rocks that were returned but currently we know that there's no magnetization uh you know there's no active magnetic field so you know it's uh which suggests that there's a potentially as maybe a very small solid intercore which is you know so it it's definitely an active topic of research and we are seeking answers to this via you know several of those missions that Ryan was talking about so yeah it's we know for sure there's a liquid core but a solid core I I my bed is indeed there is but you know we want evidence for It We Are Scientists so we want evidence that's fascinating so we have a lot more questions to get to later on in the show but let's go back to James and Ernie right now to see what the lunar eclipse intertality looks like around the world yeah thanks so much Joey we were just looking at a feed from Nebraska a second ago just switched off but they had the most red looking Moon it was incredible it was beautiful wasn't it yeah we were tracking this earlier the weather looked really nice from Nebraska so they must have had a beautiful clear night there yeah in fact I was saying earlier tonight that that's that's the clear part of the country that's the part that's not affected by clouds and and it turned out somebody was there watching this amazing yeah and so a couple questions have come in on Twitter as well here too and I think you can really speak to these very well Karthik asks why do lunar eclipses happen rarely and not every 28 days right that's a great question and it's because the moon's orbit is slightly tilted so um five out of the six months the moon is going to pass either underneath the Shadow or above it uh it's only when you get that tilt oriented just right so that the moon is going um right along that line that connects the Earth and the Sun that you get lunar eclipses and solar eclipses as well those are related so a lunar eclipse is always the full moon solar eclipse is always the new moon so they're at opposite ends of the orbit but that's what Eclipse season really means it's when that tilt is oriented in such a way that it's sort of Crossing through the center line got it amazing and you know if you're just tuning in too this is really going on quite a bit longer after our broadcast here as well too so you know stick around put on another pot of coffee if it's getting late for you wherever you are in the world and just take your time to observe and really enjoy this view here too another question from Twitter from Lucas he asks how do you calculate the next lunar eclipse or any eclipse for that matter so um that's something that we've actually gotten very good at um the the calculation of the position of the Moon the Earth and the Sun and these are the critical elements that you need in order to understand when an eclipse is going to happen we can predict those 100 100 or more years into the future and what you need to do is just roll that clock forward while you're doing the calculation and find out where everything lines up again and that's basically how you do it uh a little bit dark here San Diego oh there's the fee this is the one up yeah this is an absolutely stunning view out in the plains of Nebraska a gorgeous gorgeous shot here of the moon really love this one as well and so unfortunately here it stayed cloudy for us a lot of thunderstorms but I was actually able to visit the Moon from our own Goddard Visitor Center it was a lot of fun you know we got a nice close-up view of it here hoping for a bit better weather you know for the next lunar eclipse down the line here as well so we'll see how that goes as well uh Joy how was your trip up the space today yes I highly recommend going to NASA's Visitor Center in Greenback Maryland to go to the Moon yourself as well so we have a lot more questions from social media so let's let's get chatting um we have a question from TJ on Twitter and they ask why do we have to wear special glasses during a solar eclipse but not during a lunar eclipse well um you know the solar eclipse in during solar eclipse looking at you know the sun and the sky and you really you don't want to look at the sun directly because of all the harmful radiation such as like UV light Etc that's coming in at all times you should never look at the sun right so even during the solar eclipse what happens is you know you get that really drop in uh you know sunlight and so you have um you have a very really dark place and suddenly when the moon um you know moves away uh you get this Saturn bright so which can damage your eye so that's why they recommend you to wear a filter whereas for the lunar eclipse you're looking at um just like looking at a moon during a full moon or a a waiting or a you know during the other phases of the moon uh is that is the the light which is bounced off from the Sun and then coming to you so that's much less bright and you know they're not as harmful as that looking at the solar eclipse so we have a question from nip per on NASA Moon Facebook and they ask with the moon receding from the earth about two centimeters per year how long will it be until there will be no total eclipses or by Mega coincidence will the sun shrink at the same ratio really great question and I don't know that I know the answer can we shout that one over to Ernie I think uh I mean it's we can make that calculation uh because you know we have the models that can extrapolate it based on the current data sets that we have to the Future uh but you know at some point we we're not going to be able to witness like a total uh you know solar eclipse either because you know we'll we'll have the moon becoming smaller and small as it goes away but it's a calculation that needs to be done before it can be answered it won't be in our lifetimes okay so we have another question um marisota electronic on YouTube asks is there gravity on the moon yes the gravity on the moon is one-sixth that of Earth so um that's why if you see videos of the Apollo Astronauts they can look like they're hopping around kind of almost in slow motion like because there there is gravity it's just not quite as quite as strong as hers okay so we have um Loudoun on Twitter and they ask why are lunar eclipses only visible from certain locations oh I think uh um so it to be in that shadowed region right so um the the moon's orbit is slightly inclined so what happens is there are only specific points in the orbit where you can have that shadow so as long as uh you know you the Moon is visible in the sky when the moon is passing through that uh you know shadow of the earth you'll be able to be able to see that and that's probably why okay so that is all we have time for today thank you both so much for answering everyone's questions online thanks for having us yeah pleasure and thank you to everyone joining us at home for this remarkable experience remember totality ends at 12 54 a.m eastern time so if it's not cloudy where you are I recommend you head outside and check out the red moon if you want to learn more about the moon head to moon.nasa.gov and if you want to learn about NASA's latest research around the Moon follow us on NASA Moon on Facebook and Twitter and we will be continuing to stream the lunar eclipse on moon.natural.gov so head over there so you can check out the lunar eclipse at different locations across the world and mark your calendars for the next lunar eclipse which will be on November 8th until then see you next time foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you foreign [Music]

Channel: NASA

Views: 3,399,009

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Id: vGIaEIICIcs

Length: 58min 30sec (3510 seconds)

Published: Mon May 16 2022