Every Year we come across news items that mention the full moon of some months as Supermoon. We get such Supermoons several times a year, and occasionally the word Micromoon comes up. What are they?
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Here Goes….
The Moon lights up the night sky, and appears in phases every single night. The Moon appears slightly larger or smaller in size from time to time which earns its name Supermoon or Micromoon
The Path of the Moon
The Moon orbits around the Earth in an elliptical path, which is a stretched circular path. This path has its center split into two points called the Foci (plural of focus). All planetary bodies orbit around a parent body in these elliptical paths with the parent body at one of the foci.
The Moon, in its orbit, moves closer to and farther away from the Earth as it reaches the ‘Apsis’ points. In an elliptical orbit, the closest and the farthest points are called the peri-apsis and apo-apsis, respectively.
These points are called perigee and apogee, around the Earth. Similarly, the Earth reaches the points known as Perihelion and Aphelion around the Sun
Closest and Farthest
The Moon at perigee is 356,375kms from the Earth, and at apogee, this distance increases to 406,720km.
The Moon at Perigee is closer to the Earth, and therefore appears larger. This is most evident during the Full Moon as the images clearly show this difference.
So What is a Supermoon?
Only The Full Moon that occurs at perigee is called the Supermoon, even though the Moon reaches the apsis points during every single revolution at various phases.
Some sources measure the distances from the centers of the Earth and the Moon. This makes the perigee and apogee separations :360000 km and 405000 km.
When in this phase, the Supermoon appears 7% bigger than an average full moon and 15% brighter. The Full Moon at apogee appears 7% smaller, giving it the name Micromoon. The Micromoon also appears 15% fainter.
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