VOA慢速英语：美洲地区迎来超级血狼月

Lunar Eclipse to Darken Moon over North, South America

美洲地区迎来超级血狼月

People in many parts of North and South America will be able to see a total lunar eclipse Sunday night and early Monday morning.

北美和南美很多地区的人们周日晚间和周一凌晨将能够看到一场月全食。

A lunar eclipse happens when the moon passes through Earth's shadow as our planet goes around the Sun. This kind of event does not happen every year. The last lunar eclipse seen in the United States took place in September 2015.

当月球穿过地球围绕太阳公转产生的阴影时，就会发生月食。这种事件不会每年都发生，美国上次看到月食是在2015年9月。

The eclipse this weekend is special. The moon will be a little closer than it normally is to the Earth. For this reason, it will appear brighter than usual. Such a moon has come to be called a supermoon.

本周末的这次月食有些特别。月亮会比平时更靠近地球，因此，它会比平时更亮，这样的月亮已经被称之为超级月亮。

Astrophysicist Patrick Hartigan told the Associated Press, "It not only is a supermoon and it's a total eclipse, but the total eclipse also lasts pretty long. It's about an hour." Hartigan works at Rice University in Texas.

天体物理学家帕特里克·哈蒂根(Patrick Hartigan)对美联社表示：“这次不仅会有超级月亮和月全食，月全食还会持续很长时间，大概会持续一个小时。”哈蒂根在德克萨斯州莱斯大学工作。

If skies are clear, the total lunar eclipse also will be partly visible in western Europe. It will be fully visible in Greenland and Iceland.

如果天空晴朗，西欧地区也能看到部分月全食。格陵兰岛和冰岛可以看到完整的月全食。

When the moon is completely eclipsed, it looks darker and appears to have an orange or even a red color. That is because the reduced amount of sunlight which reaches the moon is scattered by the Earth's atmosphere. A sunset on Earth looks orange for a similar reason.

当月亮完全被遮蔽，看上去很暗，散发着橙色或红色的光芒，这是因为照到月球的太阳光减少，并且受到了地球大气层的散射。由于类似原因，地球上的日落看上去也是橙色。

Because of its reddish color, an eclipsed moon is sometimes called a blood moon.

由于呈现这种红色，月食有时候也被称之为血月。

In North America, there are traditional names given to each of the 12 full moons that happen throughout the year. January's full moon is known as the wolf moon or the great spirit moon. So this weekend's eclipse is being called a super, blood, wolf moon by some people.

在北美，每年的12个满月都有其传统名称。一月的满月被称之为狼月或是great spirit moon。所以这个周末的月食也被一些人称之为超级血狼月。

The eclipse will begin shortly after sunset in eastern North America and South America depending on where you are. A total lunar eclipse can be seen easily with the unaided eye.

这次月食将在北美东部和南美日落不久后开始，具体发生时间取决于你所在的位置。凭肉眼就能轻松看到这次月全食。

Hartigan said, "It's just a wonderful thing for the whole family to see because it's fairly rare to have all these things kind of come together at the same time."

哈蒂根表示：“这是全家人可以一起观看的一件美妙的事情，因为所有这些因素凑到一块很难得(指超级月亮、血月、狼月凑到一块)。”

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While the moon, Earth's only natural satellite, will be closer than usual, it still will be 357,000 kilometers away from our planet. This will be the first of three full-moon supermoons this year.

月球是地球唯一的天然卫星，虽然它比平时更接近地球，但是还是距离地球有357000公里。这将是今年将会遇到的三次超级满月中的第一次。

The next total lunar eclipse visible anywhere in the world will not happen until May 2021.

下次全球任意地方看到月全食要等到2021年5月。

I'm Mario Ritter Jr.

小马里奥·里特报道。