The supermoon of March 2011. (Photo by philliefan99)
On Saturday night, our nearest celestial neighbor is putting on what should be one helluva show. Get ready for the return of Supermoon!
The moon is set to hit its perigee—its closest position relative to Earth—on Saturday, May 5. That evening also happens to be the next scheduled full moon, meaning that just as we saw in March 2011, the moon will appear larger than any other point of the year.
The full moon will crest about 11:25 p.m. Saturday and will appear about 16 percent larger than any other full moon this year, according to Space.com. The moon will still be 221,802 miles away, certainly still too far to cause any tectonic shifts. However, there will be some choppy surf this weekend around the world, as the relative increase in gravitational pull will cause tides around the world to be higher and lower than usual.
Don’t worry, there’s probably no chance of this happening: