But early this morning many people in India were able to see a ‘Blue Moon’ and that too a ‘Blue Super Moon’, when the moon made it closest approach to the Earth at 1:13 a.m. local time on Aug. 31., about an hour after it reached its highest point in the sky.
Pravasi samwad.com
New Delhi: Most people must have heard the phrase “once in a blue moon” many times over. It is used as a metaphor for a rare occurrence or something that happens after a long, long time.
But early this morning many people in India were able to see a ‘Blue Moon’ and that too a ‘Blue Super Moon’, when the moon made it closest approach to the Earth at 1:13 a.m. local time on Aug. 31., about an hour after it reached its highest point in the sky.
The term ‘blue moon’ has nothing to do with its colour. What actually happens is that when two full moons occur within a single month, the second is called a blue moon.
A supermoon occurs when the Moon is both full and at or near its closest point to Earth. This happens just three or four times in a year.
At such times the moon appears slightly larger and much brighter, But if in one month you see two supermoons, the phenomenon is called a “super blue moon.” And that’s what happened early this morning.
Although there’s a full moon nearly every month—about 25% of which are considered supermoons—only 3% of full moons are blue moons. The last blue moon was in August 2021 and the next will be in May 2026. So if you missed seeing this one, you’ll have to wait for a while before you can see it once again.
While the average distance to the moon is 238,855 miles (384,400 kilometers) at this time the moon will be 221,942 miles (357,181 kilometers) away.
According to NASA experts The moon only actually appears blue when small air particles like smoke or dust “scatter away” red wavelengths of light, according to NASA, which can make the moon appear blue.16 hours ago.
Usually, a full moon occurs when the moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the sun, a position it reaches about every 29.5 days. The moon’s orbit is tilted some five degrees from the plane of the Earth’s orbit, so even though the moon is “behind” Earth, it isn’t in Earth’s shadow each time it makes a circuit of our planet. When it does pass through the shadow of Earth, we see a lunar eclipse,
Although there’s a full moon nearly every month—about 25% of which are considered supermoons—only 3% of full moons are blue moons. The last blue moon was in August 2021 and the next will be in May 2026. So if you missed seeing this one you’ll have to wait for a while before you can see it once again.
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