If you’re a selenophile, then be ready to witness a very rare event. On Wednesday you’ll get to see a supermoon, one of the largest and brightest moon of 2023.
A supermoon is so named because the moon appears much larger in the sky when it is full and is closest to Earth. It is going to be the second full moon in the month of August, following the first on August 1. As a result, it will be referred to as a blue moon.
Reportedly, The Blue Moon will be at its brightest about 9:30 p.m. (IST), while the Blue Super Moon will be at its brightest around 7:30 a.m. (IST) on August 31.
“About 25 percent of all full moons are supermoons, but only 3 percent of full moons are blue moons,” wrote NASA scientists on the Earth’s Moon website. “The time between super blue moons is quite irregular ― it can be as much as 20 years ― but in general, 10 years is the average. The next super blue moons will occur in a pair, in January and March 2037,” as per New York Post.
A blue moon has nothing to do with the colour of the Moon. NASA defines it as the second full moon in a single month. "Once in a blue moon" occurs every two and a half years on average.
A supermoon is a full Moon that occurs when the Moon is at perigee, its closest distance to the Earth. The Moon appears 14% larger than the “micromoon”, when the Moon is furthest away from Earth on its elliptical orbit, according to London’s Natural History Museum. The supermoon also casts 30% more light on Earth compared to the dimmest full Moon, reported New York Post.
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