Supermoons are great and all, but blood moons are way cooler, right? We’re pretty sure that scientifically speaking, blood moons occur every time a vampire attacks a gloomy eastern European village. But then again, we’re not scientists. Let’s find out what blood moons really are.
A blood moon, then, is sort of like a moon watching a sunset. When the Earth fully blocks the sunlight on its path to the moon, the little light that does get through travels through a whole lot of atmosphere. The atmosphere scatters the blue light and sends only the red light the moon’s way. A blood moon can also happen when there’s a lot of smoke or other haze in the air since that can scatter blue light in the same way.
The Cosmic Dance
Explaining Lunar Eclipses and the Super Blood Moon