Fancy you see faces in the moon? Perhaps you'll notice their expressions tomorrow night, when the full moon is the biggest its been in nearly two decades. Referred to as a "supermoon," the lunar phenomenon occurs when our favorite space rock is in perigee, its closest orbital position to Earth. At this spot, the moon is 14 percent bigger, and 30 percent brighter than when it's farthest from Earth, at apogee, according to NASA鈥檚 video above. Further, each perigee isn鈥檛 always the same because of changes in the moon鈥檚 orbit. Tomorrow鈥檚 supermoon will be 鈥渏ust 221,566 miles (356,577 kilometers) away from Earth,鈥 writes Andrew Fazekas in . 鈥淭he last time the full moon approached so close to Earth was in 1993, according to NASA,鈥 he adds.
Still not convinced of this event's rarity? 鈥淭he Moon is exactly 100 percent full only one instant a month, and that moment is very unlikely to line up with the exact moment of perigee,鈥 Ethan Siegel, a visiting of physics at Oregon鈥檚 Lewis and Clark College and author of the science blog, . 鈥淚n other words, sometimes we see the Moon full near perigee, sometimes near apogee, and most of the time somewhere in-between.鈥 Tomorrow's supermoon will be full less than an hour away from perigee. That鈥檚 "a near perfect coincidence that appears once every 18 years or so," the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington DC. "I'd say it's worth a look."
And if Japan鈥檚 recent earthquake and tsunami have you worried about a supermoon鈥檚 effect on Earth鈥檚 tides, don鈥檛 fret. 鈥淭he 'Supermoon' will cause the highest high tides and the lowest low tides we've seen in a long time,鈥 , 鈥渂ut only by about an inch.鈥 And I鈥檓 guessing there won鈥檛 be any werewolves, either.