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  • If you missed the Supermoon, here's a look.

    The Supermoon that rose on January 1st is also called a Wolf Moon. The Supermoon is the first of two in 2018 both happening in January. The next and last chance to see one this year is on January 31st. A Supermoon is a full moon when it is approximately at its closest orbital point to Earth. This time lapse view is from Benfield Road in northeast Charlotte.

The Supermoon that rose on January 1st is also called a Wolf Moon. The Supermoon is the first of two in 2018 both happening in January. The next and last chance to see one this year is on January 31st. A Supermoon is a full moon when it is approximately at its closest orbital point to Earth. This time lapse view is from Benfield Road in northeast Charlotte. John D. Simmons jsimmons@charlotteobserver.com
The Supermoon that rose on January 1st is also called a Wolf Moon. The Supermoon is the first of two in 2018 both happening in January. The next and last chance to see one this year is on January 31st. A Supermoon is a full moon when it is approximately at its closest orbital point to Earth. This time lapse view is from Benfield Road in northeast Charlotte. John D. Simmons jsimmons@charlotteobserver.com

The moon is about to do something it hasn’t done in more than 150 years

January 02, 2018 12:32 PM

UPDATED 2 MINUTES AGO

Call it whatever you like — a blue red moon, a purple moon, a blood moon — but the moon will be a special sight on Jan. 31.

Three separate celestial events will occur simultaneously that night, resulting in what some are calling a super blue blood moon eclipse. The astronomical rarity hasn’t happened for more than 150 years, according to Space.com.

A super moon, like the one visible on New Year’s Day, is the term for when a full moon is closest to the Earth in its orbit, appearing bigger and brighter than normal.

On Jan. 31, the moon will be full for the second time in a month, a rare occasion — it happens once every two and a half years — known as a blue moon.

To top it off, there will also be a total lunar eclipse. But unlike last year’s solar eclipse, this skywatching event isn’t going to be as visible in the continental United States. The best views of the middle-of-the-night eclipse will be in central and eastern Asia, Indonesia, New Zealand and Australia, according to Space.com, although Alaska and Hawaii will get a glimpse, too.

For the rest of the U.S., the eclipse will come too close to when the moon sets for the phenomenon to be visible.

In Florida, the view will be terrible, said Florida International University astronomy professor Caroline Simpson. However, lunar eclipses aren’t particularly rare.

“We’ll have a better shot in a few years,” she said.

Because of the way the light filters through the atmosphere during an eclipse, blue light is bounced away from the moon, while red light is reflected. The eclipsed moon’s reddish color earned it the nickname blood moon.

“We’re seeing all of the Earth’s sunrises and sunsets at that moment reflected from the surface of the Moon,” Sarah Noble, a Program Scientist at NASA headquarters, said in a release.

Scientifically, Simpson said, the event is pretty meaningless. The moon’s orbit is well-studied and well-understood by scientists. The real impact, she said, is how astronomical events like this get people interested in science.

“Anything that keeps people interested in science and makes them realize science is important is a good thing,” she said.

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  • NASA's to-do list for 2018 includes visiting an asteroid and a journey to the sun

    The work we do, which will continue in 2018, helps the United States maintain its world leadership in space exploration and scientific discovery. Launches, discoveries and more exploration await in the year ahead.

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NASA