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I love this for reasons that may be non-obvious: the connection between the Moon Earth's biological environment. Please let me explain. (1) The red color on the Moon is the result of light refracting through Earth's "tertiary atmosphere", which we have BECAUSE OF LIFE... 1/n
2/n ...and BECAUSE OF THE MOON. When the Moon formed (we believe by a giant impact), it blew off Earth's primary atmosphere, which was probably a lot denser like that of Venus. A secondary atmosphere then seeped from the Earth, and then life came along and transformed it...
3/n This "tertiary atmosphere" is the one we know today, with lots of oxygen and nitrogen. Now the red color is mostly from the way nitrogen scatters out the blue sunlight leaving red to shine on the Moon in an eclipse, but if you looked at the Moon with a spectrometer...
4/n ...then you would see that the light spectrum shows signs of oxygen, which we believe is a hallmark of a planet filled with biological life. So that red light with its unique spectrum tells us this Moon belongs to a life-filled planet. Also,...
5/n ...(2) the picture show wonderful PLANTS in the foreground, which (probably) can exist because that giant Moon in the center blew off that primary atmosphere, giving the Earth a chance to form its secondary (and later tertiary) atmosphere. They are interconnected. Also...
6/...(3) the person who took the picture (unseen but implicit in the picture) requires the plants and the oxygen to have a metabolism that gives us the ability to do things like create cameras and wonder about the Moon. So that person depends on everything in the picture. also...
7/...(4) the camera that took the picture depends on the existence of an industrial supply chain, which means intelligent creatures learned how to use natural resources to extend their ability, leading to science and technology, all depended on those plants and that Moon. Also...
8/ ...(5) it is tricky because this industrial supply chain now threatens those same plants and that atmosphere with over-industrialization, but then again we have that beautiful Moon in the center of the picture, which holds the solution to this problem. Because...
9/ ...these same, amazingly intelligent creatures that made the camera and the industrial supply chain to make it, that had the wonder to look up and to photograph a red Moon, have the ability to imagine a world where the industrial supply chain is moved off-planet...
10/ ...to imagine a world where we can still make cameras and all the scientific and economic machines that can bring more joy out of our experience in this universe, but do it in a way that won't hurt the plants and the atmosphere which came from this wonderful red Moon...
11/ ...because we used our cameras to study this Moon to learn about its resources and the resources from asteroids and beyond, and we learned how to move our machines first to the Moon then on to deeper space, so we can live without hurting the other species the share our world,
12 ... so once again, it is all connected. This beautiful Moon was vital in our past, and it will be vital in our future, so we can continue having these beautiful plants, and the amazing atmosphere, and the technology that takes pictures of them, and we can help all humans...
13/14 ... all over the world share in this economic and technological development in a better and cleaner world. If we only look at the way things are today we will feel depressed, so it is good to have these eclipses to remind us to look up, beyond the way things are right now,
14/14 ...because today isn't the end of the story. The drama with the Earth and that beautiful Moon has been going on for billions of years, and we are now within just one human generation of the most amazing and wonderful part. That's why I LOVE this picture.
