In another three days — on Monday, Nov 14, to be specific — the moon will appear the biggest and the brightest in more than 60 years. On 8:09 PM GMT on that day, the distance between the Earth and the “supermoon” will be at its minimum since 1948.
Commonly known as the supermoon, or technically a “perigee full moon”, this phenomenon occurs when a full moon coincides with the moon being at its closest distance from the Earth on its orbit.
As icing on the cake, this coming supermoon is even more special as the moon will come closer to Earth than usual, thus appearing to be even bigger and brighter than the regular supermoon.
But before some of you get too excited about the forthcoming event, we would like to share a word of caution against raising your expectations too high. Despite all the hypes, it is also possible that the moon would appear to you more or less the same as any other full moon,
How bigger and brighter the supermoon will be?
At approximately 08:09 PM GMT, the distance between the Earth and the Moon will be 356,511km — the closest it has been since 1948. Because this is happening on a full moon night, the supermoon will appear more than 30% larger in area and over 30% brighter than usual.
In terms of diameter, the upcoming supermoon will be nearly 14% wider than the smallest of full moons you normally see. It’s slightly bigger than the next supermoon exactly a month later on December 14, although you probably won’t notice any difference between the two whatsoever.