Ever been scared of the Moon before? No? Well, now you probably have, as a lunar eclipse that took place last night turned it a distinctly foreboding shade of blood red. Somewhat unsurprisingly, certain purveyors of fear have been calling it the dawn of the apocalypse.
Actually, the #bloodmoon has very little to do with the four horsemen, and instead occurs when the Earth’s shadow passes over the Moon and it’s set to happen a further three times over the next two years, after which another tetrad of lunar eclipses will not take place again until 2032, when we are all really old or dead.
The total lunar eclipse took place over three hours as the Moon moved into the Earth’s shadow and was seen across most of North America, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Now, don’t fret: if you’re worried about the fact that the moon just turned blood red in color, nobody could blame you, but the blood-like-ness of the moon has nothing to do with actual blood. What actually happens is that the Earth blocks all direct sunlight from reflecting off the Moon’s surface, so that the light passes through the Earth’s atmosphere, turning it blood-colored.
Anyway, the whole event proved pretty awe-inspiring in a “we are so small and insignificant” kind of way, prompting numerous famous people to stop and stare at the sky for a while, before producing some hashtagged comments in the Twittersphere as follows:
Kat Dennings went namedropp-y:
Moon Bloodgood is probably getting a lot of texts #bloodmoon
— Kat Dennings (@OfficialKat) April 15, 2014
While others saw the chance to make references:
Just snapped my first picture of this #bloodmoon and accidentally caught something else. pic.twitter.com/0cGoNPe2Rm — Michael James Nelson (@NelsonComedy) April 15, 2014
Wil Wheaton went profound:
Looking up at the #bloodmoon, I see Mars and another star, and realize that I live on a rock, hurtling through space. I think that’s cool. — Wil Wheaton (@wilw) April 15, 2014
While Billy Eichner just got confused/made a bad joke?:
Stevie Nicks must be freaking out right now. #BloodMoonEclipse
— billy eichner (@billyeichner) April 15, 2014
Millie Thrasher went trivial:
I love the fact that no matter where we are we are all looking at the same moon “Somewhere Out There” #BloodMoonEclipse #LunarEclipse
— Millie Thrasher (@LuvAlwaysMillie) April 15, 2014
One eclipse down, three more to go.
- Game of Thrones’ shocking death: Twitter sees red (well, purple)
- MTV Movie Awards: Twitter reacts to the tears, drunkenness and topless Zac Efron
- Outkast reunites at Coachella 2014: Twitter reacts
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