Monday 4 February 2013

Supermoon

A supermoon is the coincidence of a full moon or a new moon with the closest approach the Moon makes to the Earth on its elliptical orbit, resulting in the largest apparent size of the moon's disk as seen from earth. The technical name is the "perigee-syzygy of the earth-moon-sun system". The term "supermoon" is not an astronomical one, but one that originated in modern astrology. The association of the moon with both oceanic and crustal tides has led to claims that the supermoon phenomenon may be associated with increased risk of events such as earthquakes and volcanic eruption. However, the evidence of such a link is widely held to be unconvincing.

The moon's distance varies each month between approximately 357,000 kilometers (222,000 mi) and 406,000 km (252,000 mi ) due to its elliptical orbit around the earth (distances given are center-to-center).
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