The term supermoon means that a full moon occurs roughly
at the same time the moon is nearest Earth in its monthly orbit.
It is coming up on
the night
of June 22-23, 2013. An astrologer, made the term supermoon, and
it has recently come into common usage. Some are supposing that there may be
some kind of effect on people on Earth due to super moon. Calculating the
values of different influences on individuals at the extreme of lunar perigee, when
the moon is closest to Earth, and presumably has the greatest effect on our
planet.
When the moon is
closest to the Earth, its gravitational pull is at its peak.
Supermoon is the change
in distance between the moon’s farthest and closest points, the full moon can
appear as much as 14% larger in the sky and 30% brighter to our eyes than
at minimum size and brightness.
The result of this
differential gravitational effect of the moon is that our planet is stretched
slightly, along a line between the Earth and moon. The body of the Earth is
fairly rigid, so it does not stretch much, but the oceans are much more easily
moved. Thus the effect piles up water on either side of Earth, and these piles
of water created by the differential gravitational effect – are the tides.
Note that, on average, the tidal effect is quite small. It raises tides only a
few feet across an 8,000-mile-wide planet Earth.
Supermoons focuses
attention on the moon, and nature in general. But the bottom line is that any
physical effects of supermoons are
not exactly super. There is no reasonable evidence that they cause super disasters.
The effects that people may attribute to them are psychological rather than
physical.
There are several supermoons this year and every year and there may be some changes in the environment.