More than seven billion people saw a rare "blood moon" in September 2025

In early September 2025, residents of most of the Earth witnessed a rare and spectacular astronomical phenomenon — a total lunar eclipse, which became the longest since 2022.

The eclipse occurred on the night of September 7-8 and lasted a total of about five and a half hours. A special feature of the event was its long full phase, which lasted 1 hour and 22 minutes. During this period, the Moon, being in the shadow of the Earth, did not disappear from the sky completely, but acquired a mysterious dark red hue, known as the "blood moon".

This effect occurs due to the fact that the Earth's atmosphere scatters short blue waves of sunlight, allowing only long red waves to reach the Moon's surface. According to experts, the unique spectacle was available for observation by more than seven billion people. Residents of Australia, Asia, Africa and Europe have the best conditions for viewing the entire eclipse from beginning to end. Residents of America, with the exception of Hawaii, parts of Alaska and a small area of Brazil, were less fortunate, as it was daytime on their territory at the time of the eclipse.

A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Sun, Earth, and Moon line up in a perfectly straight line. The earth, being between them, casts a shadow on its satellite. The eclipse began on September 7 at 15:28 Coordinated Universal Time (GMT), the full phase lasted from 17:30 to 18:52, and the phenomenon ended at 20:55.

Lunar eclipses always occur two weeks before or after solar eclipses. This event will be followed by a partial solar eclipse on September 21, 2025, which, however, will be visible only to residents of New Zealand, Antarctica, some Pacific islands and a narrow strip of the east coast of Australia.

Source: New-Science.ru