great and good; A supermoon happens because the Moon’s distance from Earth is constantly changing. ; The Moon’s orbit is not a perfect circle but rather elliptical, which means it’s closer at some point, and then farther away a few weeks later;
Great and good
A supermoon happens because the Moon’s distance from Earth is constantly changing.
The Moon’s orbit is not a perfect circle but rather elliptical, which means it’s closer at some point, and then farther away a few weeks later
The Moon goes through phases – from new moon all the way to full moon – depending on the amount of light it receives from the Sun and its position.
When these two things – closest approach (the scientific term for it is perigee) and full moon – happen at the same time, we get a supermoon.
Technical term for a supermoon is “perigee-syzygy of the Earth-Moon-Sun system”, where syzygy means straight-line configuration of the three celestial bodies.
Supermoon is 14 percent wider and 30 percent brighter than it is at apogee (that’s the opposite of perigee, i.e. farthest from Earth).