BBC Sky at Night

What is a ‘supermoon’ and when do they occur?

pril will see the first of three consecutive supermoons in 2021, making this an ideal time to discuss this often-misunderstood phenomenon and to separate the facts from the fiction. A supermoon occurs whenever a full Moon coincides with the Moon’s closest approach to Earth along its orbit. The Moon takes just over 27 days to orbit Earth on an elliptical path that takes it from its most distant point from Earth at apogee, to

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