Context:
Recently, the night sky was illuminated by a rare phenomenon – a super blue moon.
What is a Super Blue Moon?
- Combination of a supermoon and a blue moon.
What is a supermoon?
- When the moon is at perigee, it seems bigger and brighter in the sky.
- Sometimes, the moon gets really close to Earth during its journey around our planet. This is called “perigee.”
- At other times, the moon is much farther away from Earth. This is known as “apogee.”
- Coined by – An astrologer Richard Nolle (1979)
What is a blue moon?
- It is the second full moon in a month. Despite its name, a blue moon isn’t blue; it’s the traditional name for the second full moon in a month.
Other Moon Phenomena:
- Micro-moon –
- Coincidence of a full moon or a new moon with the farthest approach that the Moon makes with the Earth on its elliptical orbit.
- Super Blood Blue Moon –
- Combination of an extra big Super moon, a Blue moon and a total lunar eclipse.
- During Lunar Eclipse, the moon gliding into Earth’s shadow will gradually turn in to orange or red.
- The sunlight passing through the Earth’s atmosphere break down and red part gets scattered by the atmosphere and falls on the Moon’s surface.
- Thus, a totally eclipsed moon is called a “Blood Moon”.
- Super Blood Wolf Moon –
- It is a phenomenon wherein the Moon appears particularly large and bright with a reddish glow.
- Super Blood Wolf Moon = Full Moon + Perigee + Lunar Eclipse + January
- Pink moon –
- The full moon in April is called the ‘pink moon’ in North America.
- It is to represent ground phlox, which are ground-cover flowering plants and usually bloom around springtime.
- Super Flower Blood Moon –
- Flower Moon is the 2nd full moon of spring and May’s full moon.
- When it meets both Super Moon and Blood Moon criteria, it is called Super Flower Blood Moon.
Source: Indian Express
Previous Year Question
In the northern hemisphere, the longest day of the year normally occurs in the:
[UPSC Civil Services Exam – 2022 Prelims]
(a) First half of the month of June
(b) Second half of the month of June
(c) First half of the month of July
(d) Second half of the month of July
Answer: (b)
