East Tennesseans were able to enjoy the supermoon this week but their view may have been clouded by smoke from fires that have been burning in the region.
The Knoxville News Sentinel spoke with Sean Lindsay, lecturer and astronomy coordinator in UT’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, about the impact the smoke has had on the color of the moon.
“Any time you have a lot of stuff in the atmosphere you will end up changing the color of the moon or the sun for that matter,” Lindsay said.
He added that the atmosphere and the particles it contains are responsible for the color change.
“Any time the moon is near the horizon it will look red or orange because that is when you are seeing it through the most atmosphere,” he said. “Smoke particles really amplify things. There is so much smoke right now that even when the moon is high in the sky we are still seeing it as a sickly yellow.” Read the full story online.