The moon is about to get closer to Earth than its been in almost 70 years
It's getting closer.
The moon, that is — by Monday morning at 6:15 a.m. ET, our lunar companion will be at its nearest since 1948, and within just 85 miles of the closest it can possibly get to Earth, Space reports.
As a result, this is a good weekend to spend some time looking at the night sky. The moon will be at its brightest in nearly seven decades as it heads towards its Monday morning peak, when it will also be a full moon. At that point, it will appear 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than normal. So-called supermoons aren't actually all that rare — they occur about every 14th full moon — but this weekend's will be the closest full moon until 2034.
Article continues belowThe Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"The difference in distance from one night to the next will be very subtle, so if it's cloudy on Sunday, go out on Monday. Any time after sunset should be fine," Noah Petro, deputy project scientist for NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, told Reuters.
Unfortunately, an untrained eye still might not immediately notice the moon is bigger and brighter, Space points out. "I don't know who first called it a supermoon," Neil deGrasse Tyson has said. "I don't know, but if you have a 16-inch pizza, would you call that a super pizza compared with a 15-inch pizza?"
