Blood Worm Moon: What to know about March's total lunar eclipse, full moon
Following February's "planetary parade," another astronomical phenomenon will light up the night sky soon — a total lunar eclipse.
Total lunar eclipses cause the moon to appear a striking red color, and occur only when the moon is full and aligning perfectly with the Earth and sun. Americans haven't seen a total lunar eclipse in almost three years.
Due to the moon's eerie, color-shifted appearance during total lunar eclipses, these full moons are often nicknamed "blood moons." With the eclipse approaching, here's what to know about total lunar eclipses, including how to view the next one.
The total lunar eclipse will be visible throughout the U.S. on the night of March 13 into 14.
The website Time and Date predicts the moon will complete all of the eclipse phases in 6 hours, 3 minutes.
For U.S. residents, here's a schedule of the eclipse from start to beginning, according to NASA:
11:57 p.m. EST: you can see the eclipse starting when the penumbral phase begins as the moon enters the outer part of the shadow and begins to subtly dim.
1:09 a.m.: A partial eclipse begins as the moon enters Earth's umbra and starts to darken. To the naked eye, the moon should look like a bite is being taken out of the lunar disk.
2:26 a.m.: Totality occurs when the entire moon is under the umbra. This is when the reddish hues of the "blood moon" will be on display.
3:31 a.m.: As the moon exits the umbra, the red color will fade and another bite-like display, this time on the other side of the moon, will appear.
6 a.m.: The entire process should end by this time as the moon slowly exits the Earth's penumbra.
According to NASA, another total lunar eclipse won't be visible in the U.S. until March 2026.
"Blood moon" is a nickname given to total lunar eclipses. The process that produces the red or orangish glow is the same that makes our sky blue and our sunsets red, according to NASA.
As sunlight reaches Earth's atmosphere, it is refracted toward the surface.
Because blue light has a shorter wavelength and scatters relatively easily, that's why our sky appears in that color most of the time. Reddish light, which travels more directly in the air, manifests to ground observers during sunrises and sunsets when the sun is near the horizon and its incoming light travels at a longer, low-angle path through Earth's atmosphere.
That's similar to what's happening on the moon during a total lunar eclipse when sunlight is once again refracted towards the surface of the fully eclipsed moon. Even though Earth blocks sunlight from directly reaching moon during a total lunar eclipse, our planet's atmosphere still bends sunlight to indirectly light up the lunar surface.
"It's as if all the world's sunrises and sunsets are projected onto the moon," NASA explains.
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March's full moon, the Blood Worm Moon, will reach peak illumination at 2:55 a.m. on Friday, March 14.
The last full moon, February's Snow Moon, was at peak illumination at 8:53 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 12.
The name of March's full moon highlights the transition from winter to spring. The Old Farmer's Almanac explains that it was originally thought that the name referred to earthworms that appear as the soil warms. However, during Captain Jonathan Carver's visit to the Naudowessie (Dakota) and other Native American tribes in the 1790s, he wrote that the name Worm Moon refers to a different sort of "worm" - beetle larvae - which begin to emerge from the thawing bark of trees and other winter hideouts at this time.
Previous reporting by the Hendersonville Times-News said that the 12 full moons each year are named by Native American tradition. In the same article, UNC Asheville Associate Professor of Astronomy Britt Lundren reminded readers that, when sharing the titles of the monthly moons, it's important to remember the cultural diversity of tribes in the U.S. This diversity means that there are multiple names for each of the full moons every year.
"Each tribe has a close relationship with the land, and their moon names will reflect the seasonal changes unique to their environments," Lundren said.
Alternative moon names refer to animal activity in March, weather and other natural phenomena. The Almanac lists:
Eagle Moon, Goose Moon (Algonquin, Cree)
Crow Comes Back Moon (Northern Ojibwe)
Sugar Moon (Ojibwe)
The Wind Strong Moon (Pueblo)
The Sore Eyes Moon (Dakota, Lakota, Assiniboine)
Here's a list of the full moon names for 2025, courtesy of the Old Farmer's Almanac:
January - Wolf Moon
February - Snow Moon
March - Worm Moon
April - Pink Moon
May - Flower Moon
June - Strawberry Moon
July - Buck Moon
August - Sturgeon Moon
September - Corn Moon
October - Hunter Moon
November - Beaver Moon
December - Cold Moon
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Eric Lagatta, USA TODAY, contributed.
Iris Seaton is the trending news reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at iseaton@citizentimes.com.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: What is a blood moon? What to know about March's total lunar eclipse
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