A rare green flash from the moon

[Judi Lynn]

A rare green flash from the moon
18:22 27 April 2011

http://www.newscientist.com.nyud.net:8090/blogs/shortsharpscience/assets_c/2011/04/GreenMoon-thumb-600x323-123906.jpg

(Image: Gerhard Hüdepohl/ESO)

One early morning, high up in the clean air of Chile's Atacama Desert, an engineer at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) used the Very Large Telescope to capture these stunning images of the setting moon, complete with its rare green flash.

While green flashes from the setting sun are seen relatively frequently, from the setting moon, they are tough to glimpse. ESO reckons that Gerhard Hüdepohl's series of photographs are very likely the best ever taken of the moon's green flash.

So what is it? As the light from the moon hits the low, dense layers of its atmosphere, green light is refracted at a greater angle than red. In exceptional conditions, the relative densities of the atmospheric layers enhance the separation between the green and red light. The result is a green flash atop the setting orange and red moon.

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2011/04/green-flash-from-the-moon.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

[global1]

1. Are You Sure This Isn't A Promotional Marketing Campaign For A New Green Lantern Movie......nt

[jpak]

2. I always thought The Green Flash was a faity tale until I saw it - through binocs no less

twice in the Pacific.

And we would run from one deck to the other to see it happen again

very cool to see one with the moon

:toast:

[Pacifist Patriot]

4. My family has caught it twice at sunset in Key West.

We look for it every year, but it's been awhile.

[Mnemosyne]

3. Very cool! Looks like a pumpkin. K&R n/t

[TheMadMonk]

6. Linus Van Pelt is vindicated at last. /nt

[Mnemosyne]

9. Amen. lol n/t

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. Let's go save Captain Jack Sparrow!

[RT Atlanta]

7. beautiful

thank you for sharing

[thelordofhell]

8. The pea is under the third one

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. And that's how it was for the next ten nights....

A flare, spurting out from Marsthe Moon - bright green, drawing a green mist behind it - a beautiful, but somehow disturbing sight.

Ogilvy, the astronomer, assured me we were in no danger. He was convinced there could be no living thing on that remote, forbidding planet.

"The chances of anything coming from Marsthe Moon are a million to one," he said. "The chances of anything coming from Marsthe Moon are a million to one - but still they come!"

http://news.discovery.com/space/what-are-the-chances-of-anything-coming-from-mars.html