CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — North and South America, get ready for the first eclipse of the year— in color.
Next Tuesday
morning, the moon will be eclipsed by Earth's shadow. This total lunar
eclipse will be visible across the Western Hemisphere. The total phase
will last 78 minutes, beginning at 3:06 a.m. EDT and ending at 4:24 a.m.
EDT.
The moon will be rising in the western Pacific, and so only
the last half of the eclipse will be visible there. In much of Europe
and Africa, the moon will be setting, so there won't be much, if
anything, to see.
Even though
the moon is in the Earth's shadow, it should appear a bit colorful, some
shade of red or orange. That's from light around the edges of the Earth
— essentially sunrises and sunsets — splashing on the lunar surface and
faintly lighting up the moon, said Alan MacRobert, senior editor at Sky
& Telescope magazine.
On April 29, the Southern Hemisphere will be treated to a rare type of solar eclipse.In all, four eclipses will occur this year, two lunar and two solar.
Tuesday's lunar eclipse may
damage a NASA spacecraft that's been circling the moon since fall. But
no worries: it's near the end of its mission.
The
robotic orbiter LADEE (LA'-dee) was never designed to endure a lengthy
eclipse. Scientists don't know if it will withstand the prolonged cold
of the hours-long eclipse.
Even
if it freezes up, LADEE will crash into the far side of the moon the
following week as planned, after successfully completing its science
mission. In an online contest, NASA is asking the public to guess the
impact time. Scientists expect LADEE's doomsday to occur on or before
April 21.
LADEE stands for
Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer. The science-collecting
portion of the mission went into overtime at the beginning of March.
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