Stunning photos of the super blue blood moon are flooding in from across the world.
The celestial event – a combination of three rare lunar phenomena – has been captured by people in America and Asia who were able to see the stunning sight.
The “blood moon” is another name for a lunar eclipse. That describes when the Earth moves between the sun and the moon, and as the light comes around our planet it is turned a deep red that then shows on the face of the lunar surface, giving the effect its name.
The supermoon refers to times when the full moon also lines up with its perigee – the point in its orbit when it’s closest to the Earth. That makes it look big and bright.
Together, the phenomenon was a stunning one: a big, bright, bloody moon lighting up the night sky. The latest pictures show what experiencing it was like.
(The blue moon can’t actually be seen, since it refers to calendar months with two full moons in them.)
As well as making for a stunning sight, the lunar eclipse allowed Nasa to learn more about the moon’s surface. When the light is blocked out, the surface goes very cold – by studying the effects of that, scientists can learn more about what the moon’s still mysterious surface is made out of.
