Stunning photos of the last super blood moon of the decade

People in America and Europe had a memorable night with the appearance of the last supermoon and total lunar eclipse of the 2010s.

On the night of January 21, the entire Western Hemisphere witnessed a beautiful astronomical phenomenon. That evening, the Moon not only came closer to Earth than average, but it also turned a very attractive orange-red color in the night sky.

From a tropical forest in Chile, photographer Yuri Beletsky captured the blood moon hiding behind the leaves. He shared that the rainy summer in Santiago made the sky full of thick clouds, making it difficult to observe and take pictures, but in the end, luck smiled on him to get such a beautiful and heartbreaking photo.

Why does the Moon appear so orange? That's because the Moon enters the Earth's shadow during a total lunar eclipse. At that time, the Earth is between the Sun and the Moon, our planet blocks the light from the Sun to the Moon, so the Moon does not receive its full light as usual.

However, sunlight is white light with many wavelengths of light, among which is red-orange light with long wavelengths that is not absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere but goes straight to the Moon, making this celestial body appear red-orange when observed from Earth.

In Saskatchewan, a Canadian province that shares a southern border with the United States, photographer Alan Dyer captured a total lunar eclipse against a sky full of bright stars. According to the author, you can see the star cluster Messier 44 in the constellation Cancer on the left of the photo.

Also on this night, the Moon is only 357,715km away from Earth compared to the average distance between them of 384,400km, making this month's full Moon called a supermoon. When a supermoon occurs, we will observe the Moon is 30% brighter and 14% larger.

Below are stunning photos of the super blood moon taken from all over the western hemisphere, from the United States to South America, from Russia to European countries.

This image captures the Moon's transition from entering the Earth's shadow to exiting it, or its gradual transition from white to red. In the foreground is the Cologne Cathedral in Cologne, Germany, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. (Photo: Martin Junius).

The Moon turns blood red during a total lunar eclipse. This photo was taken in Utah, USA by photographer Dylan Knight.

Close-up of the phases of a total lunar eclipse. This is the last total lunar eclipse of 2019 and of this decade, the total eclipse duration is 5 hours and 12 minutes while the total phase duration is 1 hour and 2 minutes. (Photo: Royce Bair).

Death Valley is a desert valley located in the state of California, USA. It is called that because it is arid and has little life, and because many past expeditions have died here after becoming disoriented. Nights in Death Valley are even more terrifying when the blood moon is high in the sky. (Photo: Harun Mehmedinović).

Statues in Cinquantenaire Square (Belgium) seem to be holding the blood moon on their shoulders. The next total lunar eclipse will take place on May 26, 2021, this time it will be visible in Vietnam. (Photo: Yves Herman/Reuters).

The moon moves into the Earth's shadow, turning from dark white to crimson in the sky above Tours Cathedral in central France. (Photo: Guillaume Souvant/AFP/Getty Images)

The moon rises behind One World Trade Center in New York. This is just a photographic technique that makes the moon appear larger. In reality, a supermoon does not make the moon appear so large that it is noticeable to the naked eye. (Photo: Marco DeGennaro)