This word means: blood moon

'Blood Moon' on the winged Lion of Venice during the Friday eclipse. (Source: Reuters)

On Friday, a "blood moon" captivated eclipse observers in large parts of the world. Not only was it the longest total lunar eclipse of the century, but it also occurred when Mars was closest to Earth, and the Red Planet was also visible near the Red Moon. But why was the moon red?

This occurs during any total lunar eclipse, because of the nature of sunlight and the positioning of celestial bodies. Sunlight is made of different colors, from purple and blue (short wavelength) to red and orange (high wavelength). When sunlight enters the Earth's atmosphere, these colors disperse in different directions. During a lunar eclipse, the Earth is placed between the Sun and the Moon, which means that it blocks the light between them. Any sunlight reaching the moon must therefore circle the Earth. The light that manages to do this is the one with the higher wavelengths, towards the red end of the spectrum. When this light hits the surface of the moon, it gives it the orange-reddish glow that characterizes a total lunar eclipse.

Although this has always been the case, the expression "blood moon" is relatively new. Ed Krupp, director of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, told The New York Times that the term had been coined by evangelical ministers. It seems to have come from 2008 when Mark Biltz, founder of El Shaddai Ministries in Washington State, said that he had discovered a pattern among lunar and solar eclipses that would mark the second coming of Christ. In 2013, John Hagee, pastor of megachurch, prophesied in the book Four Blood Moons: Something is about to change that a series of four lunar eclipses in a period of 18 months would precede the kidnapping, according to the NYT article. Although the apocalypse did not arrive, "now every lunar eclipse is called a moon of blood," the article quotes Krupp as saying

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