We all remember the much overhyped “Super Moon,” the phenomenon that occurs when the moon is near its closest point to the Earth, or its perigee. This week, we’re going to get a chance to see the opposite of that, when the moon is near its apogee, or farthest point from the Earth. Naturally, there’s a cutesy name for it, too: “Mini Moon.”
Sorry wait, give me a second. I’m having flashbacks to the Sailor Moon dub, and I do not like it.
Okay, anyway. The lunar apogee will fall at 8:53 EST (that’s 4:52 on January 16th in Universal Time), and the actual full moon itself doesn’t occur until exactly 11:52 EST (1:53 UT). So dumb name aside, this is going to be the closest a full moon has gotten to its exact time of apogee since November 1984, and it’s not going to get any closer until 2052.
So what will it look like? Well, sort of like the full moon always looks, but pink smaller — the smallest it will look for all of 2014. If that doesn’t sound very impressive, remember that the moon is a giant rock that’s hurling itself around the even-more-giant rock that we also live on, which is also hurling itself around an enormous ball of hot fiery gas, which is floating around through a vast nothingness that the mind cannot comfortably conceive. So, you know. Try to keep it in perspective.
(via Universe Today, image via deuzeffe on flickr)
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