[ti:Total Lunar Eclipse to Turn Moon Red]
[al:Science & Technology]
[ar:VOA]
[dt:2025-03-12]
[by:www.voase.cn]
[00:00.00]A total lunar eclipse is about to make the moon appear a reddish color across the Western Hemisphere.
[00:10.69]The event will happen Thursday night into Friday morning.
[00:17.70]The best places to see the eclipse will be in North America and South America.
[00:27.58]Parts of Africa and Europe may also get brief views.
[00:33.83]A lunar eclipse happens when the sun, Earth, and moon line up just right, with Earth positioned between the sun and moon.
[00:48.89]This causes the Earth to create a shadow on the moon. 
[00:54.59]In a total lunar eclipse, the Earth's shadow covers all of the moon.
[01:01.73]Another kind of eclipse is a solar eclipse.
[01:06.68]In a solar eclipse, the moon gets in a position where it blocks light from the sun, causing a partial or full shadow on Earth.
[01:21.16]A total lunar eclipse can also be called a blood moon.
[01:27.54]It makes the moon appear reddish-orange, similar to the element copper. 
[01:35.11]The color comes from small amounts of sunlight passing through the Earth's atmosphere.
[01:43.40]The American space agency NASA says lunar and solar eclipses happen between four and seven times a year. 
[01:56.25]The last total lunar eclipse was in 2022.
[02:01.19]This one will be visible for about one hour starting Friday morning at 2:26 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).
[02:15.52]The time when the Earth's shadow covers all of the moon will be close to 3 a.m. EDT.
[02:25.26]"As long as the sky is clear, you should be able to see it," Shannon Schmoll told the Associated Press.
[02:36.29]She is the director of Abrams Planetarium at Michigan State University.
[02:43.35]No special equipment will be needed to see the reddish moon.
[02:49.28]The total lunar eclipse may be harder to see in Europe and Africa because the moon will be close to setting.
[03:02.41]Michael Faison is an astronomy expert from Yale University.
[03:08.59]He told the AP, "This is really an eclipse for North and South America."
[03:17.35]Zoe Ortiz is a historian with the University of North Texas. 
[03:24.42]She noted that different civilizations have observed lunar eclipses for thousands of years.
[03:34.12]This helped ancient people learn things about the behaviors of the sun, moon, and stars.
[03:43.39]"They were looking at the night sky and they had a much brighter vision than we do today," Ortiz said.
[03:53.25]The ancient Greek thinker and writer Aristotle observed that Earths' shadow on the moon during a lunar eclipse was always curved. 
[04:06.87]This fact supported proof that the Earth is round.
[04:14.00]The next total lunar eclipse will appear in the sky September 7, across parts of Asia, Africa, Australia and Europe. 
[04:27.02]Parts of the Americas will get the next chance to see one in March 2026.
[04:35.46]I'm Caty Weaver.