Supermoon This Weekend Will Be Largest Of Year
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Supermoon.
Skywatchers will spot a spectacular sight this weekend when the Supermoon rises in the sky. The moon this weekend will appear larger than at any other time this year.
Of course, the moon isn’t actually any larger. According to Live Science, a Supermoon occurs when the full moon lines up within 12 hours of the lunar perigee.
Live Science writes: “The lunar perigee is) the point in the lunar orbit that brings the moon closest to Earth. The moon’s orbit is slightly elliptical; at its closest approach, the moon is 225,622 miles (363,104 kilometers) from Earth. At its farthest, the moon is 252,088 miles (405,696 km) away.”
The Supermoon will peak on Sunday, June 23, and could appear between 14 to 30 percent larger than your average moon.
The Huffington Post reports that there will be another Supermoon this July but that the moon won’t appear this large until August 2013:
Other than its appearance, there isn’t really anything super about this moon. Still, some people believe that supermoons have been responsible for disasters like the tsunami in Japan in 2011 and the sinking of the Titanic.
John Bellini, a geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey, said: “A lot of studies have been done on this kind of thing by USGS scientists and others. They haven’t found anything significant at all.”
