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Introduction Supermoon
Introduction
Supermoon is a term proposed by American astrologer Richard Noelle in 1979. It is a phenomenon in which the moon is near perigee when the moon is new or full. When the moon is at perigee, a new moon occurs, which is called super New moon; the moon is exactly full when it is at perigee, known as a super full moon.
The new moon appears on the first day of each lunar month. When the moon travels between the sun and the earth, the moon faces the earth with its dark side, and rises and dies with the sun, so people cannot see it. Although the moon is indeed closer to the earth at this time, its actual size has not changed, and people cannot see it. Therefore, it is meaningless to call it a super new moon, and it does not give the impression of an ordinary new moon no difference.
2 Types of Distinction:
A supermoon will be 30 percent brighter than the smallest full moon, but only about 15 percent brighter than a typical full moon. In fact, on a clear winter night, far from the city lights, the full moon can be seen brighter.
However, if observed near the city, due to the influence of city lights, the difference between this supermoon and the usual full moon is difficult to distinguish. If clouds or haze are present, then there is no difference in brightness to speak of.
Cause of formation
Before calculating the date of the supermoon, let’s take a look at several cycles of the moon:
The orbital period of the moon is 27.32 days, but the lunar synodic period is used as a month, and the average period is 29.53 days. The difference between the two is that the former is still worse than the distance the earth has traveled in this month. Suppose the moon starts to revolve between the earth and the sun (the moon phase is a new moon at this time). After 27.32 days, the moon revolves around the earth for one week, but because the earth also rotates an angle around the sun during this period, the moon also revolves around the sun. It would take another two days or so to get back between the Earth and the sun, putting the moon phase back into the new moon. That is, the number of days between two new moon phases is 29.53 days. Similarly, the two full moons are also 29.53 days apart.
According to calendrical calculations, the 14 synodic months are very close to the 15 periadic months. That is to say, every time the moon experiences 14 rounds (that is, 14 “synodic months” in astronomy, totaling 413.4 days, roughly equivalent to 14 months in the lunar calendar), when the 14th round is the most round, it passes or approaches at about the same time. Perigee of the 15th perigee month. That is to say, every one year and one month and 18 days, that is, every 413 days, we will usher in such a “supermoon”. But sometimes, a full moon before and after this calculation will also appear close to the perigee. In recent years, many people have also called such a full moon a “super moon”.
The average distance from the moon to the earth is about 380,000 kilometers, but the orbit of the moon around the earth is not circular, but elliptical. According to measurements, when the moon is at perigee, the average distance from the earth is 363,000 kilometers, and when it is at apogee, the average distance is 406,000 kilometers, a difference of 10.41%.
When the moon is close to us, the moon is larger, and when the moon is far away, the moon is smaller. If the distance difference is not very large, such as tens of kilometers or hundreds of kilometers, most people will not have a clear feeling, but the difference between perigee and apogee is more than 50,000 kilometers, and there is a relatively obvious difference.
Because it is the only satellite of the earth, it rotates by the gravity of the earth, and the earth rotates by the gravity of the sun, so when the moon rotates to a certain point or any point, it is subject to the comprehensive gravity from different celestial bodies in space. Influence, and this gravitational force is large or small, it is a very complex system, so the orbit of the moon around the earth is also more complicated, and the perigee will always change.
There are two key points in the generation of “super moon”, one is the closest and the other is the most round. Zheng Yongchun, an associate researcher at the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that if the moon happens to be full at perigee or near perigee, the moon we see on Earth is 12-14% larger than when it is at apogee, and we will appreciate it. , brighter moon, many people also call it “super moon”.
The point on the moon’s orbit that is closest to the Earth is called “perigee”, otherwise it is “apogee”. Every time the moon revolves around the earth, it will pass one perigee and one apogee, on average, once every 27.5546 days. The time interval between two consecutive perigee (or apogee) passages of the moon is the perigee month (27.5546 days). The two full moons are about 29.5 days apart. Since the moon’s perigee time and the full moon’s time can be accurately calculated each month, using their respective orbits, it is possible to calculate when the “supermoon” will be seen.
During an operation cycle of the moon’s movement around the earth, if there is a “super moon”, it is often not when the moon is closest to the earth. Hours are possible, and the smaller the time difference, the larger the moon would theoretically be seen. Of course, in reality, it doesn’t make any difference.
In addition, there is no standard way of saying that a full moon within the distance from the perigee of the moon to the earth can be called a “super moon”.
Zhu Jin, curator of the Beijing Planetarium, believes that the so-called “super-supermoon” is only because the moon’s perigee position is closer to the earth and looks larger, so some people call it a “super-supermoon” .
However, the best time to observe a “super-supermoon” is when the moon is just rising or about to set. The moon is above the horizon at this time and appears larger due to psychological effects.
4 Main Effects:
Internet rumors
Every time a “super moon” comes, the sound of a “super moon” causing a disaster on the earth spreads in cyberspace. A terrifying saying is that due to the “too close” between the earth and the moon, the increase of the moon’s gravitational force will affect the earth’s plates, thereby triggering large-scale earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis and other natural disasters. In addition, “supermoons” can also trigger unusual weather on Earth.
Some good people say that there were super moons in 1955, 1974, 1992, 2005, and 2011, but none of them brought good luck to mankind, and extreme climate events emerged one after another. For example, when the moon reached perigee in 1938 and 1955, the United States and Australia were ravaged by hurricanes and floods, respectively; on Christmas Day in 1974, Australia was hit by the strongest hurricane “Tracy” in history; in January 2005, on the supermoon Two weeks before it appeared, a large-scale tsunami occurred in Indonesia, killing thousands of people; on March 8, 2011, a magnitude 4.3 earthquake occurred at the junction of Taikang County, Fugou County, and Xihua County in Zhoukou City, Henan Province.
On March 10, an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.8 occurred in Yingjiang County, Yunnan, and on March 11, an earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 occurred near the east coast of Japan and caused a tsunami. There are many people who associate these disasters with “supermoons.”
The question is, is there really a necessary connection between them?
Experts refute rumors
In fact, the appearance of “super moon” and “super-super moon” is actually a relatively normal astronomical phenomenon, with stronger repetition and visibility than other celestial phenomena. We can see the “super moon” every year. Appear.
After running-in in billions of years, the earth and the moon have formed a stable earth-moon system. Therefore, even running to perigee will not cause disaster to the earth. At present, there is no evidence to support such a conclusion.
Peter Wheeler, an expert at the International Center for Radio Astronomy, also said that there is no necessary connection between “super moons” and earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Even if there are volcanoes and earthquakes, it is mainly because of the earth itself.
The former director of the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a well-known astronomer Zhao Junliang said: “The distance between the earth and the moon does affect the earth’s tides, but earthquakes are plate movements inside the earth.”
Experts from the Institute of Geophysics, China Earthquake Administration have studied the time series of catastrophic earthquakes with more than 1,000 deaths since 1900 and the time series of large-scale volcanic eruptions with an eruption index above 4: to mid-March 2011, since 1900 There were 108 earthquake events with more than 1,000 deaths and less than 10,000 deaths in total, occurring on average once a year, and 31 earthquake events with more than 10,000 deaths, occurring on average every 3.5 years. From the perspective of the time axis, the distribution of such earthquakes is relatively uniform, and there is no clear correspondence between the so-called “super moon”.
And some catastrophes, such as the Chilean earthquake and the huge tsunami it caused, did not occur in 1955, the “super moon year”, but in 1960; the Tangshan earthquake in 1976, which killed 240,000 catastrophically, and 8 deaths in 2008. Neither the Wenchuan earthquake with more than 10,000 people nor the Haiti earthquake that killed more than 220,000 people in 2010 occurred in the so-called “super moon year”.
As a part of the solar system, many scientists do not deny that interstellar motion in the solar system will have some impact on the earth. At present, many scientists in the world are also engaged in research in this area, but there is no evidence that the operation of the moon will cause disasters to the earth. . Cowan said that although the motion of the moon will change the size of the tides on the earth, it will not change much. When the “supermoon” appears, because the moon is closer to the earth, it will cause larger tides to appear, but the average observer will not feel too obvious, nor will it cause serious natural disasters.
One point of view is that part of the interior of the earth is liquid, so there will also be tidal motion there. Some people think that the tidal motion in the interior of the earth is one of the causes of earthquakes, and this is obviously affected by the sun in addition to the influence of the sun. The influence of the moon’s motion, the “supermoon” will have the greatest impact. However, this claim still lacks sufficient scientific basis.
Others believe a “supermoon” could lead to more mental illnesses, homicides, or other crimes, but there’s no basis for that.
Is it true or false that ‘supermoons’ will trigger natural disasters
When it comes to the word “supermoon”, everyone must be familiar with it. As long as there is news about a supermoon, it always attracts people’s attention, and there are many rumors about it. Among them, there are claims that the term supermoon is artificial; there are other claims that supermoons will trigger natural disasters such as earthquakes, because when the supermoon appeared in 2011, a strong earthquake of magnitude 9.0 occurred in Japan. So what are the facts?
What is the origin of the term supermoon? In 1979, American astrologer Richard Noelle defined a supermoon as a phenomenon in which the moon is near perigee when it is a new or full moon. Since the orbit of the moon around the earth is in a non-standard elliptical shape, the moon revolves around the earth more than 12 times in a year, and the moon will pass perigee in each circle, and it is about 356,000 kilometers away from the earth when it is closest. Nearby, the full moon will appear extra large, called a supermoon.
However, supermoons are not mysterious. On average, there are about 4 to 6 supermoons a year. When the full moon rises from the horizon (i.e., perigee), we see the moon appearing to be larger and brighter than when it rose to the zenith. The perigee moon is nearly 14% larger and 30% brighter than the apogee moon. %. However, because the distance between the Earth and the Moon is far greater than the small changes in the orbit of the Moon, changes in the size and brightness of the Moon are actually not easily detected by the naked eye.
When the supermoon appeared in March 2011, a strong earthquake of magnitude 9.0 occurred in Japan, and many people suspected that it was the result of the supermoon. Do supermoons really trigger natural disasters such as earthquakes? In this regard, Zhao Zhiheng, an astronomical education expert and director of the Tianjin Astronomical Society, said that there is no evidence to show that the distance between the earth and the moon is related to earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.
Even if volcanoes and earthquakes occur, it is because of the earth itself. The current scientific consensus is that changes in the distance between the earth and the moon will only affect the tides of rivers and seas.
