Super Blue Moon

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Context: The rare supermoon blue moon, also known as the ‘Sturgeon Moon’ appeared on August 19, 2024.

The Moon

• Earth has only one satellite, that is, the moon.
• Its diametre is only one-quarter that of the earth.
• It appears so big because it is nearer to our planet than other celestial bodies.
• It is about 3,84,400 km away from Earth.
• The moon moves around the earth in about 27 days.
• It takes exactly the same time to complete one spin. As a result, only one side of the moon is visible to us on the earth.

Occurrence of Phases:

• Unlike the Sun and the other stars, the moon can’t produce its own light.
• Moon is visible because the sunlight falling on it gets reflected towards Earth.
• Only that part of the Moon is visible on which the light of the Sun is reflected towards Earth.
• The illuminated part of the moon visible from the Earth increases per day after the new moon day.
• After the full moon day, the part of the moon that is sunlit and is visible decreases in size.
• The moon revolves around the Earth. The Earth along with the moon, revolves around the Sun.
• The moon completes its one revolution around the earth along with one rotation on its axis.
• The duration between a full moon to the next full moon is longer than 29 days. This is known as a month in many calendar systems.

Phases of Moon

New Moon:

• This is the invisible phase of the Moon, with the illuminated side of the Moon facing the Sun and the night side facing Earth.
• In this phase, the Moon is in the same part of the sky as the Sun and rises and sets with the Sun.
• Not only is the illuminated side facing away from the Earth, it’s also up during the day.
• In this phase, the Moon doesn’t usually pass directly between Earth and the Sun, due to the inclination of the Moon’s orbit.
• It only passes near the Sun from our perspective on Earth.

Waxing Crescent

• This silver sliver of a Moon occurs when the illuminated half of the Moon faces mostly away from Earth, with only a tiny portion visible to us from our planet.
• It grows daily as the Moon’s orbit carries the Moon’s dayside farther into view.
• Every day, the Moon rises a little bit later.

First Quarter

• The Moon is now a quarter of the way through its monthly journey and we see half of its illuminated side.
• People may casually call this a half moon, but, that’s not really what we’re witnessing in the sky.
• We ’re seeing just a slice of the entire Moon ― half of the illuminated half.
• A first quarter moon rises around noon and sets around midnight.

Waxing Gibbous

• Now most of the Moon’s dayside has come into view, and the Moon appears brighter in the sky.

Full Moon

• This is as close as we come to seeing the Sun’s illumination of the entire day side of the Moon (so, technically, this would be the real half moon).
• The Moon is opposite the Sun, as viewed from Earth, revealing the Moon’s dayside.
• A full moon rises around sunset and sets around sunrise.
• The Moon will appear full for a couple of days before it moves into.

Waning Gibbous

• As the Moon begins its journey back toward the Sun, the opposite side of the Moon now reflects the Moon’s light.
• The lighted side appears to shrink, but the Moon’s orbit is simply carrying it out of view from our perspective.
• The Moon rises later and later each night.

Last Quarter

• The Moon looks like it’s half illuminated from the perspective of Earth, but really you’re seeing half of the half of the Moon that’s illuminated by the Sun ― or a quarter.
• A last quarter moon, also known as a third quarter moon, rises around midnight and sets around noon.

Waning Crescent

• The Moon is nearly back to the point in its orbit where its dayside directly faces the Sun, and all that we see from our perspective is a thin curve.

What is a blue moon?

• As the cycle of the phases of the moon lasts approximately one month, we typically experience 12 full moons each year.
• Many cultures have given distinct names to each month's full moon. 12 months, 12 full moons, 12 names.
• The moon phases actually take 29.5 days to complete which means it takes just 354 days to complete 12 lunar cycles.
• So every 2.5 years or so a 13th full moon is observed within a calendar year.
• This 13th full moon doesn't conform to the normal naming scheme and is referred to as the Blue Moon.

Will the Moon Look Blue?

• Even though it’s called a blue moon, the moon won’t look blue. The only time the moon might appear bluish is if there are certain atmospheric conditions, like smoke or dust.
• Normally, the moon will look more yellow or orange when it’s close to the horizon because of the way light scatters in the atmosphere.

How often do Blue Moons occur?

• Blue Moon happens approximately every two to three years.
• Since there are about 29.5 days between full moons, February will never have a monthly Blue Moon, as it only has 28 days in a common year and 29 in a leap year.
• Occasionally, February may have no full moon at all, a phenomenon known as a Black Moon, according to Time and Date.

What is a super moon?

• The term ‘supermoon‘ was first coined by astronomer Richard Nolle in 1979.
• The orbit of the moon around the earth is not circular; it is elliptical, that is, an elongated or stretched-out circle.

• The farthest point in this ellipse is called the apogeeand is about 253,000 miles (405,500 kilometers) from Earth on average.
• Its closest point is the perigee, which is an average distance of about 226,000 miles (363,300 kilometers) from Earth.
• When a full moon appears at perigee it is slightly brighter and larger than a regular full moon – and that's where we get a "supermoon”.

• A super moon (at perigee) is about 14% larger and 30% brighter than a "micro moon" (at apogee).

What is Super blue moon and Why is this rare and significant?

• A super blue moon combines a supermoon and a blue moon.
• Blending the rarity of a supermoon with the uncommon blue moon phenomenon about once every 10 to 20 years.
• The next chance to catch this rare combination will be in January and March 2037, making August 2024 a particularly special treat for stargazers.

Source

https://science.nasa.gov/moon/moon-phases/

https://www.space.com/15455-blue-moon.html

https://moon.nasa.gov/resources/429/the-moons-orbit-and-rotation/