The end of the world is nigh! Or is it? We’re in for a rare lunar spectacle soon enough, but some people seem to think it means the apocalypse is coming. JOE explains what exactly is going on…
Some of you might be thinking, “what’s all this talk about blood red moons, recently?” Well, put simply, next Tuesday, April 15, planet earth will witness the first of four lunar eclipses that make the moon appear blood red in the night’s sky.
This happens due to the alignment of the sun, moon and earth and, as we said above, it’s set to happen four separate times with six clear full moons happening in between each one – that’s why it’s so special. To see the blood red moon make sure to keep your eyes on the skies on April 15 and October 8 in 2014 and April 4 and September 28 in 2015.
Now, on to the term: ‘tetrads’. Scientists and astrologers use the term ‘tetrads’ to define “an occurrence of 4 total lunar eclipses in a row with intervals of 6 lunations, or full moons, (semester)”. Simples…
So, what exactly makes the moon “blood red”? Basically, the sun, moon and earth will be lined up so the earth’s shadow falls on the moon. The moon will appear red due to the refraction of sunlight in the earth’s atmosphere. This means that when the sun’s rays hit the earth’s atmosphere they refract, which makes the waves ‘curve’ around the earth and illuminate the darkened moon (don’t you wish you listened in science class now?). So it is this refraction that lights up the moon with the cool aforementioned red hue (see below).
A lot of people are saying that the upcoming tetrads are ‘rare’ and while it’s uncommon to have four lunar eclipses with six full moons in between each one, this won’t even be the first tetrad to occur this century. According to The Independent, “the first to occur this century was back in 2003-2004 and including this one there will be seven more before the year 2100”.
So why are people saying that the four red moons signal that the end of the world is upon us? Well, some (and we can’t stress SOME enough) Christians believe that four red moons represent the End of Days and the second coming of Christ – yeah, seriously. This could stem from the King James Bible, which predicts: “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD comes,” [Joel 2:31].
A pastor from Texas, called John Hagee, also wrote a book back in 2013 called Four Blood Moons: Something Is About To Change, which has only added fuel to the apocalyptic fire.
So are we in for the End of Days? Well, need we remind you of the Mayan calendar that ran out in 2012 and was suppose to signal the end of time as we know it? Seeing as we’re still here, we HIGHLY doubt anything bad is going to happen to planet earth over the next two years and all this talk about the apocalypse and “blood red moons” is just coincidence.
So make sure to wrap warm on Tuesday night and if you miss the lunar eclipse don’t worry; there’s another three to come.
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