How Flat-Earthers Explain Total Lunar Eclipses
By Hanneke Weitering, Space.com Staff Writer | January 22, 2019 03:42pm ET
The blood-red color of the moon during a total lunar eclipse may be difficult to explain without a basic understanding of orbital mechanics, but flat-Earth conspiracy theorists have come up with a way to circumvent scientific facts and construct a creative explanation of the phenomenon.
During the Super Blood Wolf Moon this weekend (Jan. 20-21), skywatchers in much of the Western Hemisphere saw the moon pass directly through Earth's shadow. Our natural satellite appears red during lunar eclipses for the same reason that sunrises and sunsets appear that shade here on Earth: because sunlight is scattered as it passes through the atmosphere.
According to flat-Earth conspiracy theorists, this astronomical phenomenon — known as a total lunar eclipse — was actually a rare opportunity to catch a glimpse of a mysterious "shadow object" that orbits the sun and occasionally passes in front of the moon from our point of view here, on an allegedly pizza-shaped Earth. [Amazing Photos of the Super Blood Wolf Moon of 2019!]
Although flat-Earthers believe our planet is flat as a pancake, they surprisingly seem to have come to the consensus that the sun and moon are spherical objects. However, these theorists posit that both the sun and the moon orbit Earth's north pole, hovering directly above the pancake and never passing around to the other side. If that were true, however, lunar eclipses as we know them could not happen, because the moon must be on the opposite side of the Earth from the sun for such an event to happen. So, flat-Earthers fabricated a new explanation for the shadow seen on the moon during an eclipse.
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