What happens when the Earth comes directly between the Sun and the Moon causing Earth's shadow to be cast upon the Moon?

Answer 1

Approximately 860,000 miles, or about 3 times the distance from the moon to the earth.

Source: An introduction to astronomy: designed as a text book for the use of students in college. By Denison Olmsted

URL to the relevant passage on Google books:

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Answer 2

The shadow is a long cone, pointing away from the sun behind the earth.

Right behind the earth, it's the same diameter as the earth ... about 8,000 miles across.

From there, it tapers out to a point and ends, about 870,000 miles out behind the earth.

From anywhere in that long cone, you can't see the sun, because the earth is in the way.

When the moon drifts through that cone, that's when we get a lunar eclipse.

Answer 3

The part of the moon that is dimmest, or missing completely, is in the UMBRA of the earth's shadow.
The rest of the moon is dimmed only slightly. It's in the part of the earth's shadow called the "penumbra".

This is a concept that seems to cause a lot of confusion, and for some reason, it seems as though it's
hard to understand.

What if you put your hand up in front of your face, and block off the sun. Now your face is in the UMBRA
of your hand's shadow. Your face can't see ANY of the sun.

Now move your hand slightly so that only HALF of the sun is blocked off. Your face can see part of the sun,
but not all of it. Your face is still illuminated, but less intensely. Now your face is in the PENUMBRA of
your hand's shadow.

Answer 4

sometimes during an eclipse

In astronomical terminology, the new moon is the lunar phase that occurs when the Moon, in its monthly orbital motion around Earth, lies between Earth and the Sun, and is therefore in conjunction with the Sun as seen from Earth. At this time, the dark (unilluminated) portion of the Moon faces almost directly toward Earth, so that the Moon is not visible to the naked eye.

Answer 5

When earth's shadow falls on the moon, it causes a lunar eclipse.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the earth blocks the sun rays from striking the moon. And it occurs only when the Sun, Earth and Moon are in line with the Earth in the middle.

There will be a lunar eclipse on December 21, 2010, visible anywhere in North America.

Answer 6

That's called a "lunar eclipse". Depending on how precisely the Sun, Earth, and Moon all line up, the eclipse may be "total", in which the Moon is completely in the Earth's shadow, or "partial" in which case the Earth's shadow hits only a portion of the Moon's surface.

You can see the catalog of all eclipses from 2000 BCE to 3000 AD on the NASA Eclipse Web Site at the link below.

Answer 7

Mostly, none; times when the Moon's shadow hits the Earth are fairly rare. When it happens, we call them "eclipses". The size of Moon's shadow on the Earth depends on how far away the Moon is from the Earth. Typically, the size of the Moon's shadow is about 300 miles across.

Answer 8

Lunar Eclipse. When earth blocks the sun rays striking the moon & because of which the moon slowly stop shining. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth and Moon are aligned exactly. This phenomenon lasts for a few hours only. The most recent lunar eclipse occured on Dec 21, 2010 at 08:17 UTC.

Answer 9

When the Moon happens to get into that shadow - that is, when the the Moon is opposite to the Sun. In other words, at full moon.

Answer 10

It is called a 'Lunar Eclipse'.

Northing happens on Earth, but a big bright Full Moon , will go much duller and appear to be red/grey in colour. This is because of reflected light from Earth.