
Malaysians can witness supermoon phenomenon tomorrow
Space agency announces moon will be closest to earth at local time 5.09pm, July 13
KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysians will once again have the opportunity to witness a supermoon phenomenon, which is expected to occur at 5.09pm tomorrow.
The Malaysian Space Agency (Mysa), via its official portal, announced that the phenomenon will occur due to the position of the moon being at its closest to earth, referred to as perigee, with a distance of 357, 263km.
“The moon revolves around the earth in an elliptical orbit with a mean eccentricity of 0.0549. Thus, the average distance of the moon from the earth (centre to centre) varies at all times, with the closest average distance (perigee) being 363,396km and the farthest average distance (apogee) being 405,504km.
“During a supermoon, a full moon can appear up to 7% larger than a normal full moon, and appear 14% and 30% brighter than a ‘micromoon’,” it said.
The most recent supermoon phenomenon occurred on June 14 and the image was successfully recorded by the Langkawi National Observatory Telescope system.
source – Bernama