For something different! Sometimes ya just gotta break up the geopolitics!
On Saturday, January 21, 2023, the New Moon will be precisely 221,561 miles/356,568 km from Earth. As reported by Timeanddate.com, that’s the closest it will come to our planet since the year 1030—a time of the Crusades, the Norman Conquest of Britain and early Vikings settlements in North America, a century ironically sometimes called the “Dark Ages.”
This “ultimate supermoon” also signals the beginning of Chinese Lunar New Year and comes during a rare conjunction between Venus and Saturn that will be best viewed just after sunset in the southwest on Sunday, January 22, 2022.
Why is the Moon suddenly so close?
Our natural satellite in space—which will be completely invisible to us during the cosmic event, leaving a dark sky for stargazers—will be at a smaller distance to Earth than for the last 992 years.
This so-called “Supermoon” (officially a perigee New Moon)—the opposite to a “Micro Moon” (officially called an apogee New Moon)—is therefore a very rare occurrence, but it’s part of a normal pattern.
This close Moon’s influence on our tides will be especially strong. Combined with the influence of the Sun on the same side of Earth the result will be powerful “king” tides in coastal areas between January 20-25, likely peaking on January 23.
The Moon’s orbit of Earth
The Moon’s orbital path around Earth is a slight ellipse, so each month there’s a near-point (perigee) and a far-point (apogee). At perigee the Moon appears a little larger in the sky than the average apparent size (a “supermoon”), and at apogee, a little smaller (a “micromoon”). When either occurs at New Moon there’s nothing to see at all.
This uniqueness of this weekend’s apogee New Moon was noticed by Astrophysicist & Science Communicator Graham Jones at Timeanddate.com, who looked into the closest Earth-Moon distances at New Moon over a 2,000-year period. He discovered three New Moons where the distance was less than 356,570 km (221,562 miles)—in 1030, this weekend and in 2368.
That makes this weekend’s New Moon the closest since 1030 and the closest in a period of 1,337 years.
8 replies on “Why The Moon Is Suddenly Closer To Earth Than For 992 Years—And What It Means”
Hi Penny:
Actually the moon is slowly moving away from the earth. There is no need to panic as the distance it moves away from the earth is 3.8 cm per year. The moon does not travel around the earth in a perfect circle.
Hi Gary.
I knew the moon did more of an elliptical orbit ( and it does say that in the article as well) So is it on a trend of distancing itself from the planet as usual and just this pass is close?
btw the book soil, grass and cancer- Just started to read it- Interesting!
And it makes sense. And it makes me think of Bechampe’s terrain theory as well
I was intrigued by some things David Icke said about the moon a few years ago. He postulated originally the moon was an artificially ‘manufactured’ entity, used for surveillance of the earth. I have always wondered why the moon has a ‘dark side’ and doesn’t rotate on its axis–like just about every other celestial orb. I can’t think of another one like it. Can you?
Hey Greencrow
I had never heard or read that before from David Icke.
so I took a bit of time to research- with the admission that this is way out of my field of knowledge- I’m definitely earthbound and that’s okay!
from Scientific American
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-it-just-a-coincidence/
“”The moon keeps the same face pointing towards the Earth because its rate of spin is tidally locked so that it is synchronized with its rate of revolution (the time needed to complete one orbit). In other words, the moon rotates exactly once every time it circles the Earth. ”
If anyone else can shed light on this subject???
Hi Penny:
Yes, the moon is on a trend of distancing itself from the planet as usual and just this pass is close. It is believed that this trend has been going on for a long time but they have not worked out the details.
I would suggest when the moon was closer to the earth, the annual rate of movement away from the earth was less. The gravitational pull between two bodies varies inversely as the square of the distance between them. Thus over a long period of time, even at a small annual increase in the distance between the earth and the moon will gradually lessen the gravitational pull between the earth and the moon thereby causing the annual distance that the moon moves away from the earth to very slowly increase over very long periods of time.
I think the researchers failed to take this into account. They applied the same distance the moon currently moves away from the earth backwards over time without realizing that going backwards over time would result in smaller and smaller annual movement of the moon away from the earth. So, in distant future, the annual moon movement away from the earth should increase. It’s just the application of the law of gravity assuming that that law is correct.
Okay! thanks for that Gary, I’m not entirely sure that I understand the idea you’ve put forth, but it’s interesting.
(I’ve read your comment 3 times already and.. )
I’ve come across people (interviews) who question the laws of gravity, but, again, I just don’t know enough about any of this information-
If you want to leave something to read or point me in a direction to understand this better, I’m game!
OK Penny:
The gravitational force between two bodies varies according to the mass of the bodies and it also varies inversely as the square of the distance between them. The increasing or decreasing distance between them is the issue we are concerned with.
Thus when you have two bodies that have a known gravitational force between them, if you double the distance between them, the gravitation force is reduced to one quarter of the original (not one half the original force). If instead you triple the distance between them, the gravitational force is reduced to one ninth of the original force (not one third). As you can see, the gravitational force between two bodies is rapidly reduced as they move further apart.
According to Newton’s Laws, a moving body will continue to move in a straight line unless acted upon by an external force. It’s the gravitational attraction between the earth and the moon that provides the external force that prevents the moon from going in a straight line and instead it circles around the earth. ( I know it’s not a circle).
Since the moon is known to be moving away from the earth, over geological time, the increasing distance between the earth and the moon, however small on an annual basis, will gradually reduce the gravitational pull between them resulting in the annual increasing distance between them becoming larger. On the other had, if you run the motion picture backwards, the distance between the earth and moon would be shorter and the gravitational force between them would be greater meaning in the past the annual increase in distance between them would have been smaller than it is now.
To sum up: When an object is in orbit around an object with a greater mass and if the distance between them is increasing, then the gravitational pull between them is thereby reduced thus causing, over time, an increase in the rate of increase of the distance between them.
Gary!
Thank you! The way you explained it was clear and understandable.
As I read it, I could visualize what you were saying and it was clear.
If I can ‘see something’ than I understand it.
I feel very pleased right about now :))