The super moon shined Sunday night – TF1

Better than a full Moon . A super moon! Moon took his ease Sunday night. At sunset, the lunar orb appeared in its most beautiful (and large) attire. If you had the chance to be in an area where the sky was clear (rather in the southern half of France), you may have noticed that the lunar orb was 14% larger and 30% brighter than usual. What for? The satellite is not bigger. It is simply closer. Last night he wasnt than 357,000 km of the Earth (approximately). This astronomical phenomenon is not unusual since counted a total of three Super Moons this summer. But the moon Sunday night is the most visible of the three.

What is a super moon? The term is new. It was invented in 1979 by astronomer Richard Nolle says Maxisciences site. But scientists prefer the term perigee-syzygy. He describes the moment when the moon is closest to our Earth (perigee) and, in addition, when Moon, Earth and Sun are aligned (syzygy) – which is the case when the full moon or the new Moon. The orbit of the Moon around the Earth in fact forms an ellipse and not a circle. On average, the Moon is 384,000 kilometers from Earth. But it can come within 355,000 kilometers closer – it is called perigee – and up to 405,000 km away – then this is the climax.

How many super moon each year There are several but not all are visible. A total of five Super Moons are scheduled for 2014 but only three are visible because the other two occur at the time of the new moon and not of the full Moon. That of 12 July, that this Sunday, August 10th and the September 9. To observe the following, it will then wait 29 August 2015!

The best time to watch the first few minutes are the moonrise or late night. Indeed, it is at that moment that the Moon appeared to the naked eye, with the largest diameter when it was still close to the horizon. The maximum perigee, however, was expected Monday in 8:09.

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VIDEO. Look at the pictures of the super moon of July 12

Why the moon is not a perfect sphere?

In neighborhoods or crescent moon, as familiar as it is to the Terrans, keeps its mystery. A team of researchers has proposed in the latest issue of the journal Nature an explanation for its shape, far from being a perfect sphere. The natural satellite of the Earth is not perfectly spherical, but slightly flattened. The Moon is also distorted by a slight swelling on his face from Earth, and another bead on his face down. The team of Ian Garrick-Bethell (University of California, Santa Cruz, USA) explains this particular form by the “tidal effects”, gravitational forces exerted by the Earth during the infancy of the Moon, there 4.4 billion years. The solar system was formed there is about 4.5 billion years. Depending on the model now widely accepted, the Moon would be born of a massive collision suffered by the Earth itself hardly formed. According to the researchers, the first tidal forces exerted by the Earth, so much closer to the moon, have heated unevenly, depending on location, the crust of the Moon, when it still was floating on a sea of ​​molten rock . This gave the Moon most of its shape, slightly stretched like a lemon.