Last night on June 23 the moon made its closest approach to Earth during its elliptical orbit, making it appear much larger in the sky than usual and prompting being called supermoon. It is during this supermoon phase that the celestial body makes its closest advance on our planet during its entire cycle. The next supermoon won’t grace the skies until August 10, 2014.

Such a beautiful natural phenomenon is not immune to having innumerable snapshots taken and uploaded to peoples’ favorite social media networks, and the slideshow below will show you why.

The phrase was coined in 1979 and is arbitrarily defined as “a new or full moon which occurs with the Moon at or near (within 90% of) its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit (perigee). In short, Earth, Moon and Sun are all in a line, with Moon in its nearest approach to Earth.” During this, the moon can appear 30 percent brighter and 14 percent bigger

Because the moon is the driving force behind our ocean’s tidal circuit urban legends indicate the supermoon results in an increased risk of catastrophic events such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, but the evidence of such a link is widely held to be unconvincing. More recently, it has been claimed that the supermoon of March 19, 2011 was responsible for the grounding of five ships in the Solent in the UK, but such claims are not supported by any scientific evidence.

To get a better, more relative sense of the supermoon’s scale, proximity to Earth, and perceived size in the sky, check out the infographic posted below, courtesy of the skywatchers from space.com.

Who out there took the time to appreciate the supermoon last night? If you’d like to share your photos with us and all of our associate Twitter users, log on and  tweet them to @BostInno.


Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration