Due to its proximity to Earth, the new moon will appear at its largest in the sky since December 3, 1030 AD. Timeanddate.com revealed the information after a review from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Today, the moon will be 356,568 kilometers or 221,561 miles from Earth. Those who will miss the incident today will have to wait until January 20, 2368 to experience it.
The moon’s orbit around the Earth is far from the shape of a perfect circle. In reality, it is elliptical in shape and represents a barely stretched circle. Because of its shape, the distance between the moon and the earth changes throughout a month. The point of the Moon’s orbit closest to Earth is called “perigee,” while the point furthest from the planet is called “apogee.” The longest distance between the Earth and the Moon is observed when the Earth is closest to the Sun. This happened on January 4. Nearly 2,000 years ago, three new moons occurred at distances less than 356,570 km.
Venus and Saturn align on the day after the New Moon. Today’s new moon is of great significance as it marks the start of the Chinese Lunar New Year, also known as the “Spring Competition.” According to the Chinese calendar, this year is called the ‘Year of the Rabbit’. The Chinese calendar integrates the lunar and photovoltaic methods to fix dates. The total distance between the Moon and Earth from such incidents is crucial. On April 20, the world will witness a full photovoltaic solar eclipse in Australia, East Timor and West Papua. Also, an annular photovoltaic solar eclipse will be seen in October in the US, Mexico and South America.
FAQ
Q1. What is the distance between the Earth and the Sun?
Ans. The total distance between the Earth and the Sun is 147.21 million km.
Q2. Which is the green planet?
Ans. Uranus is known as the green planet.
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