All those staying up late Monday night could be in for a tweet. A total lunar eclipse will occur on Monday night as a result of the Earth coming in between the sun and the moon to cause a red glow the is seen behind the Earth to be projected on to the moon.
Also called a “blood moon,” total lunar eclipses happen about twice a year and cause for a red glow to light up the moon, reported The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. This will be the first lunar eclipse to occur in a series of four that will appear every sixe months. This event is also called a “tetrad.” The next three lunar eclipses will occur on Oct. 8, and April 4 and Sept. 28 of 2015.
One new event however that will be happening during this lunar eclipse is the presence of LADEE that is currently orbiting the moon in order to collect data and information about the moon’s atmosphere, reported San Jose Mercury News. The spacecraft was created at Mountain View’s NASA Ames Research Center and has been the first to examine the moon’s atmosphere for the past 40 years since the Apollo missions took place.
It is unknown whether or not the lunar eclipse will negatively affect LADEE however due to the lunar eclipse, the spacecraft will chilled and its instruments could lose their operating capabilities because of the low temperatures.