{"id":321954,"date":"2026-03-10T06:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T06:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/321954\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T06:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T06:20:10","slug":"shades-of-a-lunar-eclipse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/321954\/","title":{"rendered":"Shades of a Lunar Eclipse"},"content":{"rendered":"

On March 3, 2026, Earth lined up directly between the Moon and the Sun, casting its shadow on the full Moon. The total lunar eclipse<\/a> was visible throughout the Americas, East Asia, Australia, and the Pacific. Skygazers in those parts of the world may have witnessed a \u201cBlood Moon<\/a>,\u201d when the dimmed lunar surface temporarily turned an orange-red color.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, satellites observed the effect of the darkened Moon on Earth\u2019s surface. Changes in the amount of moonlight reflected back to Earth as the eclipse progressed<\/a> appear in this composite image, composed of nighttime observations made by the VIIRS<\/a>\u00a0(Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) on the NOAA-21<\/a> satellite. The satellite collected these images of the Arctic about every 100 minutes, with earlier swaths toward the right and later swaths to the left.<\/p>\n

The VIIRS\u00a0day-night band<\/a> detects nighttime light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared and uses filtering techniques to observe signals such as city lights, reflected moonlight, and auroras. The darkest swath was acquired at 11:20 Universal Time (2:20 a.m. Alaska Standard Time), about 15 minutes after the total phase had begun. With very little moonlight reaching Earth, ribbons of light from the aurora borealis<\/a> shine through, along with specks of artificial light from settlements in the Yukon and eastern Alaska.<\/p>\n

When the satellite passed over western Alaska and the Bering Strait, at 13:00 Universal Time (4:00 a.m. Alaska Standard Time), the eclipse was in the partial phase. The scene is noticeably brighter than the earlier one, and light from the partially shaded Moon illuminates snow-covered topography and offshore clouds. The brightest swaths on the far right and left sides were acquired before and after the eclipse, respectively, with light from the full Moon.<\/p>\n

The next chance to view a total lunar eclipse will occur on December 31, 2028<\/a>, when it will add a dash of astronomical flair to New Year\u2019s Eve celebrations in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Pacific.<\/p>\n

NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison, using VIIRS day-night band data\u00a0from NASA\u00a0EOSDIS LANCE<\/a>,\u00a0GIBS\/Worldview<\/a>, and the Joint Polar Satellite System<\/a> (JPSS). Story by Lindsey Doermann.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"A\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

CIMSS Satellite Blog (2026, March 3) VIIRS Day\/Night Band imagery showing the effect of a total lunar eclipse<\/a>. Accessed March 9, 2026.<\/p>\n

NASA\u00a0The Moon & Eclipses<\/a>. Accessed March 9, 2026.<\/p>\n

NASA (2026, January 29) March 2026 Total Lunar Eclipse: Your Questions Answered<\/a>. Accessed March 9, 2026.<\/p>\n

NASA (2009, April 29) Total Lunar Eclipse of 2026 Mar 03<\/a>. Accessed March 9, 2026.<\/p>\n

NASA Earth Observatory (2025, September 20) By the Warm Light of the Moon<\/a>. Accessed March 9, 2026.<\/p>\n

NASA Earth Observatory (2008, March 13) Lunar Eclipse from Orbit<\/a>. Accessed March 9, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On March 3, 2026, Earth lined up directly between the Moon and the Sun, casting its shadow on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[113273,104562,111,139,69,147,128378,147787],"class_list":{"0":"post-321954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-earth-at-night","9":"tag-earth-observatory","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-sun-earth-interactions","15":"tag-visible-infrared-imaging-radiometer-suite-viirs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}