SUPERMOON
14
NOV
An Extraordinary Sight
The supermoon will look especially big because it's so close to Earth at the moment it reaches its fullest point. Share this sight with someone special, because we won't see a supermoon this close until 2034.
About the Supermoon
From NASA
NASA/Bill Ingalls
The moon is a familiar sight in our sky, brightening dark nights and reminding us of space exploration, past and present. But the upcoming supermoon—on Monday, Nov. 14—will be especially ‘super’ since it’s the closest full moon to Earth since 1948. We won’t see another supermoon like this until 2034.
The moon’s orbit around the Earth is slightly elliptical, so sometimes the moon is closer and sometimes it’s farther away. When the moon is full as it makes its closest pass to Earth it is known as a supermoon. At perigree—the point at which the moon is closest to Earth—the moon can be as much as 14 percent closer to Earth than at apogee, when the moon is farthest from our planet. The full moon appears that much larger in diameter and 30 percent brighter. The biggest and brightest moon for observers in the United States will be on Monday morning just before dawn.