Lighting Up the Skies

**Dr. Kiki Sanford** (0:00)
This is Twist. This Week in Science, episode number 1065, recorded on Wednesday, July 1st, 2026, lighting up the skies. I'm Dr. Kiki, and tonight we will fill your head with spud cells, planet gales, and snails. But first, thanks to our amazing Patreon sponsors for their generous support of Twist. You can become a part of the Patreon community at patreon.com/thisweek in Science. Disclaimer, disclaimer, disclaimer.
I missed a view of the strawberry moon because it was overcast in Portland last night or two nights ago. Whatever, this wasn't such a surprise for a night at the 45th parallel. What do you see when you look up? Clouds, pollution, or clear skies and stars? What if that view were filled with satellites instead?
If your long exposure telescopic images were streaked from right to left, crisscross and upside down, how many launches will it take to fill the night sky? How many lost fireflies? Will the endangered be missed when we have their genome frozen in a dish? How is the view on This Week in Science coming up next?

**Blair** (2:04)
Good science to you, Kiki.

**Dr. Kiki Sanford** (2:07)
And a good science to you too, Blair, and everyone out there. Welcome to another episode of This Week in Science.
We're back again without a Justin. It's just me, you, and the science.

**Blair** (2:22)
Did he ever even exist? I don't know.

**Dr. Kiki Sanford** (2:25)
I mean, I think he's, yeah. He's like a, I don't know, a Sasquatch now. The question, will he be, will he ever be witnessed again? You must stay up late in the darkness.
Watch him fall asleep on the couch. I don't know where he is these days.

**Blair** (2:44)
I don't even know if he does that anymore.

**Dr. Kiki Sanford** (2:46)
I know.
We have no clue. No clue at all.

**Blair** (2:50)
Someday we'll have a guest, Justin, on.

**Dr. Kiki Sanford** (2:52)
And he'll get to catch us up. I think it would be great.
Did you see the strawberry moon this week?

**Blair** (2:58)
No, all of the curtains and blinds in my home are closed long before the sun goes down. I didn't even know that was a thing.
Remind you that a strawberry moon is?

**Dr. Kiki Sanford** (3:12)
So the strawberry moon was very strawberry colored.
Yeah, that people have pictures of it from all over the place. And there were just gorgeous. There's the gorgeous red glow of the first moon of summer. However, this one is, let's see, what did they say? It's not supposed to come back in quite this same way for another 20 years. So it's a very low arc and the lowest arc of the full moon. And because of the low angle and the way the light passes, bounces through the atmosphere and moves, it looks amber, reddish, orange. And so there are pictures from all over the place. I'm seeing them. The beautiful strawberry moon. Fata saw the strawberry moon in my mind.

**Blair** (4:08)
So without spending the whole show on this, the moon's fixed in its orbit, right? So everybody sees the same side of the moon, or it's moving.
Okay, so it's like...

**Dr. Kiki Sanford** (4:23)
Orbit is not circular.

**Blair** (4:26)
Right. But we all, no matter where we are on earth, see the same side of the moon.

**Dr. Kiki Sanford** (4:34)
Yes.

**Blair** (4:34)
Okay. Now, because of that, what makes it pink, I guess, is my next question.
Is it as pink everywhere, regardless of where you are on earth, when you see it? So what makes it pink?

**Dr. Kiki Sanford** (4:49)
It's our atmosphere that makes it pink. So it's the way that the angle of the light is coming through.

**Blair** (4:57)
That happens consistently no matter where you are on earth. That part is wild to me.

**Dr. Kiki Sanford** (5:02)
So people had pictures from England, the beaches of Italy to here in the United States of our strawberry moon. And it was very reddish orange. Some places very pink. So it does depend on also, this is probably more of a northern hemisphere phenomenon because of summer, then a winter strawberry moon for the southern hemisphere.
But regardless, I never used to know about all these things, but now because of the internet and astronomy. And so all the time it's like, oh, it's another giant moon. It's a super, super moon. It's a strawberry, strawberry moon.

**Blair** (5:53)
I feel like before the internet, you would just go outside and you'd be like, oh, moon's big.

**Dr. Kiki Sanford** (5:58)
Yup.

**Blair** (5:59)
And that was it.
Yes, that was it. Did you see the moon? It was super big. Yeah, it was. So this says that when the moon is low on the horizon, moonlight has to pass through a thicker layer of the Earth's atmosphere. And because it's a thicker layer, the shorter wavelengths like blue and green are scattered and the longer, warmer wavelengths like red and orange are the ones that reach our eyes.