The movements of the cosmos will give us a series of five new supermoons in a row that will mark the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023. The first new supermoon will occur on November 23 and will be followed by four astronomical phenomena of the same nature, until March 2023.
Astrophysicist Fred Espenak is known for having belonged to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. He is now dedicated to the prediction of eclipses and astronomical phenomena such as supermoons. According to Espenak, the celestial vault will give rise to a series of five new supermoons starting in November.
A new moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, and supermoons are those that are placed at their closest point to our planet. You may know this last concept better thanks to the super full moons, which are incredible full moons where the Moon rises with its maximum splendor in the celestial vault. But this type of phenomenon does not only occur during full moons but can also occur during the new phase.
A series of five super new moons
The data shared by Espenak gives us concrete dates with the exact distance at which the Moon will be positioned from the Earth during the novilunios or new moons:
The first of the new supermoons will be on November 23, 2022, when the natural satellite will be positioned just between our planet and the Sun at only 366,161 kilometers from us. The following month, on December 23, 2022, the new supermoon will be even closer than the previous one at 359,083 kilometers. This is the end of the year’s series; however, it will be extended until next year.
The super new moons of 2023 will begin on January 21 at a staggering distance of 356,571 kilometers from Earth. Later, on February 20, there will be another new moon at a distance of 359,065 kilometers. Finally, the series will culminate on March 21 when the natural satellite will cross between the major star and our planet, at a distance of 365,979 kilometers from the Earth’s surface.
According to NASA, the term ‘supermoon’ was first coined in 1979 by astrobiologist Richard Nolle, who stipulated that to be so considered, the Moon must be at least within 90% of perigee. Super full moons are usually given much more attention, as they are fully visible in the celestial vault. New supermoons, on the other hand, are unfortunately not observable, as they occur when the night face of the Earth is diametrically opposite the location of the Moon, but they are equally amazing phenomena.
Story originally published in Spanish in Ecoosfera
