2023-08-30 18:55:58
(Washington) Astronomy fans are watching the last “super blue moon” before 2037 on Wednesday night, a rare phenomenon where the Moon is both at its closest level to Earth and directly opposite the Sun.
Posted at 2:55 p.m.
The Moon evolves at an average distance of 384,400 kilometers from Earth and is regarding 363,000 kilometers away, the closest point of its elliptical orbit to Earth to appear 14% larger.
Simultaneously, the Moon is early Thursday (9:36 p.m. Eastern Time), diametrically opposite the sun to give rise to a “blue supermoon”, said NASA, which is organizing a live broadcast of the phenomenon overnight on YouTube with Italian astronomer Gianluca Masi, while the star will be below the horizon of Rome.
The term “blue moon” refers to a second full moon in a month, a phenomenon that occurs on average every two and a half years. But the “super blue Moon”, they only appear every ten or twenty years, NASA said, adding that the last dates back to December 2009 and the next to March 2037.
During this phenomenon, the star is not really blue. The expression “blue moon” is rather taken from the English ” once in a blue moon which designates a situation that occurs only very rarely.
If the 2023 “super blue moon” should delight budding astronomers and photographers, its gravitational power, linked to its proximity to Earth, causes higher tides, which might promote flooding on the Florida coast. hit by hurricane idalia.
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