VARIOUS MEDIA: Super blue blood moon

    Press/Media: Expert comment

    Description

     

     

    Professor Tim O’Brien was on BBC Breakfast (from 2hours, 55 minutes) this morning talking about the super blue blood moon.  His views also appeared Stateside in Newsweek, republished from a piece he wrote for the Conversation. He also spoke to the BBC News site, alongside his colleague Dr Katherine Joy.

    Period31 Jan 2018 → 31 Jan 2018

    Media contributions

    2

    Media contributions

    • TitleSkywatchers see 'super blue blood Moon'
      Media name/outletBBC News Online
      Media typeWeb
      Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
      Date31/01/18
      DescriptionDr Katherine Joy, a lunar scientist from the University of Manchester, said we were now seeing a "global revival in lunar exploration" she hoped would lay the foundations for human exploration and a lunar base.

      "We'd even like to know if there are spaces in underground chambers that could be used as subsurface locations for underground bases that could be protected from the radiation environment," she told BBC News.

      In an online article about the event, Prof Tim O'Brien, from Jodrell Bank Observatory, in Cheshire, admits to being conflicted about the excitement surrounding the so-called supermoon, because the difference in the Moon's apparent size may not be as dramatic as the term might make it sound.

      But, he said, we could still learn much from the event.

      "The details of how the sunlight we see reflected from the Moon during eclipse has been altered, scattered and absorbed on its way through our atmosphere, and how this is affected by, for example, volcanic eruptions or even meteor showers, are still being studied," he said.

      The key to this new age of lunar science - particularly human exploration - Dr Joy said, was international collaboration, modelled on the approach it had taken to build and operate the International Space Station.

      "That's what makes the Moon ideal - it's only three days away," said Dr Joy.

      "You can do all of those things and plan ahead for where you would go next, but retaining that infrastructure around the Moon."
      URLwww.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42817785
      PersonsTimothy O'Brien, Katherine Joy
    • TitleSuper blue blood moon
      Media name/outletBBC Breakfast
      Media typeTelevision
      Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
      Date31/01/18
      DescriptionProfessor Tim O’Brien was on BBC Breakfast (from 2hours, 55 minutes) this morning talking about the super blue blood moon.
      URLhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09pr5p1/breakfast-31012018
      PersonsTimothy O'Brien

    Keywords

    • Super blue blood moon
    • astronomy