Posted on 12/26/2025 9:55:09 AM PST by MtnClimber
Explanation: What was so super about Wednesday's supermoon? Last week, a full moon occurred that appeared slightly larger and brighter than usual. The reason is that the Moon's fully illuminated phase occurred within a short time from perigee - when the Moon was its closest to the Earth in its elliptical orbit. Although the precise conditions that define a supermoon vary, last Wednesday's supermoon was surely the closest, largest, and brightest full moon this year. One reason supermoons are popular is because they are so easy to see -- just go outside at sunset and watch an impressive full moon rise! Pictured here, Wednesday's supermoon is compared to April's micro moon -- when a full Moon occurs near the furthest part of the Moon's orbit -- so that it appears slightly smaller and dimmer than usual. Given many definitions, at least one supermoon occurs each year, with another one coming next month (moon-th).
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Pinging the APOD list
🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔
Pretty cool!
Slightly OT, it’s pretty amazing how much “space” launch activity has been / is going on:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6OB3pViYEM&t=31s
Might deserve its own thread?
I have nightmares about having a giant Purple Teletubby moon chasing our original moon in perpetual orbit. /s
That would be awesome.
That could be fixed with an artificial moon.
The Werewolves would like multiple moons too.
The moon must be full of hot air as it expands then contracts then repeats as we go around the sun....
"Star Wars creator George Lucas truly was ahead of his time, as a recent scientific discovery confirms the existence of a Tatooine-like planet with twin suns. For decades, the idea of planets orbiting twin suns was seen as something fundamentally impossible. However, history is full of ideas that were thought to be impossible until science proved otherwise, and many of these ideas originate from sci-fi creators like Lucas. The maker ended up being 37 years ahead of science when he created Tatooine, a planet that no longer seems impossible."
"'Circumbinary planets were originally thought not to exist, since the binary stars stir up the planet-forming disks, creating a harsh environment for planets to form,' study lead author Matthew Standing, an astrophysicist at the Open University in England, told Space.com. 'This all changed with the discovery of Kepler-16b in 2011 by the Kepler space telescope. This discovery showed that it must be possible for these planets to form.'"
https://screenrant.com/star-wars-george-lucas-tatooine-twin-suns-science/
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