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Last Supermoon of 2019 Dazzles Over Acropolis

supermoon
A juxtaposition of the apparent diameters of an average full moon on December 20, 2010 (left), and of the supermoon of March 19, 2011 (right) as viewed from Earth. Credit: Marcoaliaslama , CC BY-SA 3.0/Wikipedia

A very rare coincidence occurred on Wednesday as the spring equinox, which signals the start of spring, coincided with the third, and last, supermoon of the year 2019.

The spring equinox occurred on Wednesday at midnight, at 23:58 Athens time.

Just a few hours later, on Thursday at 03:43 Athens time, the supermoon – a full moon that occurs when the moon’s orbit brings it closest to the Earth – filled the sky with its luminous glow.

This was the third and last supermoon that will occur in 2019, following those which happened on January 21 and February 19.

A supermoon is a full moon or a new moon that nearly coincides with perigee—the closest that the Moon comes to the Earth in its elliptic orbit—resulting in a slightly larger-than-usual apparent size of the lunar disk as viewed from Earth.

The technical name is a perigee syzygy (of the Earth–Moon–Sun system) or a full (or new) Moon around perigee. Because the term supermoon is astrological in origin, it has no precise astronomical definition.

The real association of the Moon with both oceanic and crustal tides has led to claims that the supermoon phenomenon may be associated with an increased risk of events like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, but no such link has been found.

The opposite phenomenon, an apogee syzygy or a full (or new) Moon around apogee, has been called a micromoon.

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