2018 will start with a brilliant New Year’s Day Supermoon
It will be one to check out.
New Year’s Day will see the biggest and brightest supermoon of 2018.
The moon will appear about 14% bigger and 30% brighter in the sky as it sits closer than average to Earth.
On average, the moon is about 238,900 miles away from Earth but during a supermoon it is much closer.
Part of the reason behind the differing distances is that the moon has a slightly elliptical orbit – it does not move around the Earth in a perfect circle.
At some points it is about 5% closer to Earth than average, known as perigee, and at others it is 5% further away, known as apogee. There’s a range of about 30,000 miles between the two points.
On January 1, the full moon comes only 4.5 hours after the moon reaches lunar perigee.
Other supermoons in 2017 occurred on January 12 and November 3 when the moon was 226,182 miles from Earth.
