Will Saturday's 'Supermoon' Destroy Earth?
Astronomers call it perigee-syzygy; the rest of us call it "supermoon." Either way, the alignment of the sun and moon will coincide with the moon's
closest approach to Earth on Saturday (May 5), resulting in the biggest full moon of the year. But don't worry, it won't break Earth....
... Saturday's supermoon will be especially super. ... On Saturday, the timing of the two events will be almost perfect: the moon will reach its
perigee distance of 221,802 miles (356,955 kilometers) — the closest lunar perigee of 2012, in fact — at 11:34 p.m. Eastern Time, and it will fall
in line with the sun (thereby becoming full) just one minute later.
Thus, our satellite will loom even larger than the supermoon of March 19, 2011, when perigee and full moon fell 50 minutes apart.
