The biggest and brightest moon of the year rises over a Jerusalem neighborhood on Sunday, June 23. The magic moment happened early June 23, 2013, when the moon was at the closest point to Earth in its orbit. A supermoon, which occurs once a year, is 14% larger and 30% brighter than most full moons, according to NASA.(CNN) -- What's better than a 'supermoon'? Three Supermoons!
The full moons of summer this year -- July 12, August 10 and September 9 -- will all be Supermoons, as NASA calls them.
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The science behind the 'supermoon'The phenomenon happens when the moon becomes full on the same day as its perigee -- the point in the moon's orbit when it's closet to Earth.
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'Generally speaking, full Moons occur near perigee every 13 months and 18 days, so it's not all that unusual,' Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory said in a statement from NASA. 'In fact, just last year there were three perigee Moons in a row, but only one was widely reported.'
Chester was talking about the Supermoon that happened in June last year. It was 14% bigger and 30% brighter than other full moons of 2013, and garnered international headlines.
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NASA stressed that sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between a Supermoon and a regular full moon, as clouds and haze can mask a difference in brightness.
'There's a part of me that wishes that this 'super-Moon' moniker would just dry up and blow away, like the 'Blood-Moon' that accompanied the most recent lunar eclipse, because it tends to promulgate a lot of mis-information,' Chester said in his statement. 'However, if it gets people out and looking at the night sky and maybe hooks them into astronomy, then it's a good thing.'
Entities 0 Name: NASA Count: 4 1 Name: moon Count: 3 2 Name: Chester Count: 2 3 Name: Earth Count: 2 4 Name: Geoff Chester Count: 1 5 Name: U.S. Naval Observatory Count: 1 6 Name: Jerusalem Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1jvanJa Title: Supermoon is here again Description: The full moon this weekend will be another so-called "Supermoon," the first of three to grace the sky this year. Since the moon is "fullest" early Saturday morning, you can look for the Supermoon both Friday and Saturday nights.
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