WASHINGTON |
(Reuters) - A "super Moon" will light
up Saturday's night sky in a once-a-year cosmic show, overshadowing a
meteor shower from remnants of Halley's Comet, the U.S. space agency
NASA said.
The Moon will seem especially
big and bright since it will reach its closest spot to Earth at the same
time it is in its full phase, NASA said.
The
Moon "is a 'super Moon,' as much as 14 percent bigger and 30 percent
brighter than other full Moons of 2012," it said in a statement.
The
scientific term for the phenomenon is "perigee moon." The Moon follows
an elliptical path around Earth with one side, or perigee, about 31,000
miles closer than the other, or apogee.
The
Moon will reach perigee at 11:34 p.m. EDT (0334 GMT on Sunday). One
minute later, it will line up with the Earth and the Sun to become full.
The last perigee Moon was on March 19, 2011, when it was about 250 miles closer than Saturday's.
A
perigee full Moon can bring tides that are higher than normal but only
by an inch or so (a few centimeters). The effect can be amplified by
local geography, but only by about six inches.
The
light from the perigee Moon will wash out all but the brightest
fireballs from the springtime Eta Aquarid meteor shower, NASA said. From
40 to 60 meteors from the shower normally can be seen each hour.
