Supermoon 2017: Stunning photos show the supermoon lighting up skies around the world
A SUPERMOON is lighting up tonight’s skyline and is visible in the UK for the first and only time in 2017.
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The full moon is 14 per cent bigger and 30 per cent brighter tonight than usual making the moon look like it is closer to Earth.
However, while tonight is the only evening the moon is officially labelled a supermoon, Noah Petro, Nasa's deputy scientist of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, has said that a similar spectacle will be visible tomorrow night.
He said: “The difference in distance from one night to the next will be very subtle, so if it’s cloudy on Sunday, go out on Monday.”
The sky has been lit up by the phenomenon due to the moon’s orbit not being a perfect circular cycle in shape.
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Dr Greg Brown at the Royal Observatory Greenwich explained: “Our Moon travels the Earth on an orbit that takes 27.3 days to complete. That orbit isn’t perfectly circular – it’s slightly elliptical.
“And that means that at certain times during the orbit, the moon is slightly closer to the Earth than at other times.
“A full moon or a new moon which occurs during the closest point in this orbit is known as a supermoon."
Tonight and tomorrow the moon will be 222,443 miles away from Earth, 5 per cent closer than normal.
The unusual lunar appearance was visible in the US earlier today.
Stunning pictures from the event show the large moon looking orange in colour and lighting up Washington landmarks such as the Capitol and Jefferson Memorial.
People across the world have been quick to use social media to express their feelings about the supermoon.
One person described the night sky as “beautiful”, and another said the full moon was “bright and golden and lovely”.
Meanwhile, someone else urged those sat on their phones to go outside and take a look at the moon for themselves.
They wrote on Twitter: “Look up from your screens, stop what you're doing and go and look at the spectacular moon.”
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There have been two other supermoons in 2017 but neither were visible to the human eye.
The moon’s orbit was also closer to Earth on January 12 and on November 3.
Tonight’s lunar spectacle is the first of three larger moons that will be visible over the coming months.
Dubbed by Nasa as the “supermoon trilogy”, the moon will also seem much larger than usually on January 1 and January 31.
