Supermoon - Coming soon!
Supermoon! As the name suggests, it is
a full moon that appears much bigger than usual. This new moon is actually
closest to the Earth in its elliptical orbit which results in a slightly
larger-than-usual appearance from Earth. The technical name for this is
also perigee syzygy.
A Supermoon can be
seen few times in a year. Here are about 12 or 13 full moons each year out of
which three or four may be Supermoons. Talking about the present year, the
first Supermoon of 2019 was the Super Blood Wolf Moon on Jan. 20-21.
This was followed by one on 19th February 2019 when the moon was the closest to
the earth in 2019. The last will be seen on 21st March 2019. Thus this will end
the series for Supermoon this year. All of these full moons are less than
362,000 km away from the center of the Earth. During this phase the moon
appears to be approx. 30% brighter and about 14% larger. However this is still
not that clear to natural eyes although a telescope can be of great help. It is
observed that the moon was at its closest point from the Earth on November 2016
while it is still believed to come closer in 2030. It is also believed that the
full moon that took place in January 1912 was the closest; roughly 100
kilometers nearer to Earth than that in November 2016 further also adding that
in November 2034 will witness the moon to be even closer than both the 1912 and
2016 moons. Like Supermoon there is also a point when the moon is farthest.
This will occur on September 14, 2019. Sometimes a Supermoon coincides with
a total lunar eclipse. This happened during the January Supermoon this
year.
The moons gravitation
affects the oceans. This makes the tides higher than the normal full moon. It
is also guessed that this phenomenon may increase the risk of
earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. However the night during the
Supermoon appear to be brighter and this can be exciting to human eyes!
Gear up to recognize the last Supermoon of the
year.
