‘Super Moon’ Will Rise Saturday for First Time in 18 Years
Posted in: NASA, space, Space Tech, Today's Chili, Weird News
On Saturday March 19th, the Moon will be closer to the Earth than it has been in 18 years. The technical term for this moon phenomenon is perigee-syzygy, but I greatly prefer the popularized term: super moon!
NASA says, the Moon “will be around 17,000 miles (27,359 km) closer than usual as it rounds Earth in its elliptical orbit.” Don’t get too excited; that’s still 221,567 miles (356,578 km) from Earth, so it’s not exactly “close.” The effect of this change of distance is that the Full Moon will be appear 14% bigger than usual. Though it will be closer, brighter, and appear bigger, these differences will be difficult to notice, seeing how it’s an orb in the massive sky with no objects for size reference.
But, nonetheless, it’s still pretty cool and probably worth trekking outside to take a peek at, so you can at least say you say you saw a “super moon.”
Photo via NASA
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