This Wednesday (July 12), the whole world can expect to see a pretty special sight: a supermoon is just around the corner, which is when the moon is at its closest point to the Earth for 2022. The full moon has been the stuff of folklore for millennia.

Each lunar cycle lasts just over 29.5 days which means a full moon tends to fall on a slightly different date each month. Sometimes this happens more than once which is called a “blue moon”.

The next full moon will be June 13 and the next after that will be August 12. July’s is special as it will be larger in the sky than usual – a phenomenon known as a supermoon.

Wednesday’s sunset will be at roughly 21.25pm and according to space.com: “at this point it [the moon] will be below the horizon, so those who want to see it are advised to look towards the south east after sunset to watch it rise”.

READ MORE: When will the heatwave end?

A supermoon occurs because the moon moves nearer and further away from the Earth at different points during it elliptic orbit. There can be a difference of up to 30,000 miles in its distance from Earth.

The closest point is called the perigee and furthest its apogee. The phenomenon does happens around three or four times each year but July will be the best time to see it, as it’s an especially big supermoon.

In November 2018 the moon reached its fullest point within about two hours of its perigee, iNews reports. It was the largest supermoon since 1948 and the next time a full moon will as close to Earth again will be November 25, 2034.

Astrologer Richard Nolle is the first person to use supermoon terminology. He first used it in a 1979 edition of Dell Horoscope. For a supermoon, Nolle wrote that a “a full moon which occurs with the moon at or near (within 90% of) its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit (perigee)” would be “super”.

It is purely because of that definition that Wednesday will be labelled as “super”. It wasn’t popularised until March 11, 2011 when an earthquake hit Japan.

Nolle himself claimed that supermoons can trigger “geographical stress”. But Space.com claims this is an “absurd” claim but similar claims about moons causing earthquakes have been made before.

READ NEXT:

What I miss the most about life as a student in Canterbury

Emma Raducanu’s quiet life growing up in Kent to US Open stardom

I visited Kent’s worst seaside town to see if it deserves the harsh label

Wildlife centre lifts lid on exactly what Johnny Depp did during ‘unreal’ visit

Tom Tugendhat highlights military background in pitch for top job

Article Source: Kent Live