Why does moon turn red in total lunar eclipse?

Answer 1

Probably the atmosphere acts as a kind of prism such that frequencies toward the 'red' end of the spectrum get bent and more focused toward the moon. Earth's gravitational field may add to this phenomenon as well by bending the red end of the spectrum inward.

Answer 2

It is all because of REFRACTION!!! Refraction is the bending of light. So you know

when it rains and it has sunlight? That makes a rainbow. Red,orange,yellow,green,blue,violet. You see, blue is the color that is being bent the most. Red is the one that is bent away. That's what happened in space. There was an amazing Lunar eclispe on December 21, 2010. So that's why the moon turn a redish or orange color.

Answer 3

I have seen this phenomenon twice, once in Italy and once in England.

Some people call it "Blood on the Moon".

It happens during a moon (lunar) eclipse of the Sun and I believe it to be due to the Moon interfering with the light from the Sun and not letting all the colours of which white light is composed pass to Earth.
During a lunar eclipse, the moon's illumination by the sun is blocked by the earth. The blocked light goes through the earth's atmosphere and is diffused and refracted by it. The outline of the shadow is not sharp and defined like when the moon causes a solar eclipse, nor is it completely dark. The atmosphere and the clouds, gasses and pollutants in it cause a shift towards the red end of the spectrum. These four factors affect how dark and red the shadow is.

That is the basic and simple explanation. Rare is the time that the moon is practically invisible during a lunar eclipse. Other times the moon can take on some very deep or bright reddish shades.
That is beautiful, isn't it? Light toward the red end of the spectrum bends most readily as it passes by earth's gravitational field. If you were to observe a lunar eclipse from the center of the moon' earth-side face, you would see a red ring surrounding the black earth as it passes over the sun. I'm sure that future explorers who will observe that will find it one of the most beautiful of natural phenomena.
It's reddish because the sun aligns behind the Earth glowing up the moon; they are awesome to witness.

"Lunar eclipse" means the moon passes through the Earth's shadow (the light comes from the sun). The redness is caused by some sunlight passing through the Earth's atmosphere on its way to the moon. It's a kind of sunset.
Light passing through the Earth Atmosphere is refracted, red more than blue, and illuminates the lunar surface giving it that reddish tint. It's really a beautiful effect, not always visible depending on atmospheric conditions for the viewer.
the light from the sun is red; this is because the light is reaching ... gradually turn the bright full Moon dark, ... creating a lunar eclipse . ...
Although the Moon is in the Earth's shadow during a lunar eclipse, some light is refracted through the Earth's atmosphere and reaches the Moon. So the shadowed part of the Moon never goes completely dark, but turns various shades of dark red.

Answer 4

During a total lunar eclipse, the Earth blocks direct sunlight from reaching the Moon, but some sunlight does pass through Earth's atmosphere and is refracted towards the Moon. The longer, red wavelengths of sunlight are better able to penetrate the Earth's atmosphere and reach the Moon, giving it a reddish hue during the eclipse. This effect is known as Rayleigh scattering.

Answer 5

Yes, it frequently does look distinctly reddish. Not "fire-engine" red, but "deep sunset" red.