vanessa
07-31-2004, 11:57 PM
For all you lunatics. Have a blood sacrifice, or something.
But will it really be blue? Probably not. The date of a full moon, all by itself, doesn't affect the moon's color. The moon on July 31st will be pearly-gray, as usual. Unless....
There was a time, not long ago, when people saw blue moons almost every night. Full moons, half moons, crescent moons--they were all blue, except some nights when they were green.
The time was 1883, the year an Indonesian volcano named Krakatoa exploded. Scientists liken the blast to a 100-megaton nuclear bomb. Fully 600 km away, people heard the noise as loud as a cannon shot. Plumes of ash rose to the very top of Earth's atmosphere. And the moon turned blue.
Krakatoa's ash is the reason. Some of the ash-clouds were filled with particles about 1 micron (one millionth of a meter) wide--the right size to strongly scatter red light, while allowing other colors to pass. White moonbeams shining through the clouds emerged blue, and sometimes green.
http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/blue_moon_july_31.html
I'm kind of hoping for a volcano somewhere to erupt. :p
But will it really be blue? Probably not. The date of a full moon, all by itself, doesn't affect the moon's color. The moon on July 31st will be pearly-gray, as usual. Unless....
There was a time, not long ago, when people saw blue moons almost every night. Full moons, half moons, crescent moons--they were all blue, except some nights when they were green.
The time was 1883, the year an Indonesian volcano named Krakatoa exploded. Scientists liken the blast to a 100-megaton nuclear bomb. Fully 600 km away, people heard the noise as loud as a cannon shot. Plumes of ash rose to the very top of Earth's atmosphere. And the moon turned blue.
Krakatoa's ash is the reason. Some of the ash-clouds were filled with particles about 1 micron (one millionth of a meter) wide--the right size to strongly scatter red light, while allowing other colors to pass. White moonbeams shining through the clouds emerged blue, and sometimes green.
http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/blue_moon_july_31.html
I'm kind of hoping for a volcano somewhere to erupt. :p