Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Millions of people around the world witnessed the biggest supermoon on November 14, the closest full moon in 68 years.

The supermoon brought the moon closer to Earth than it has been since January 26, 1948.

What’s more, the moon will not come this close to Earth again until November 25, 2034 and December 6, 2052.

That makes the November 2016 full moon the closest and largest supermoon and in Azerbaijan people will be able to experience this phenomenon during three days starting November 14.

The average distance away between the moon and the Earth is 384,393 km (238,854 mi) away. At perigee, however, the moon lies only 356,509 kilometers (221,524 miles) away.

A supermoon also looks about 30 percent brighter than a Micro Full Moon and about 16 percent brighter than an average Full Moon.

Some experts say that the supermoon usually can lead to the natural disasters.

In March 2011, for example, eight days before supermoon, Japan experienced severe tsunami which led to devastating earthquake.

Last year supermoon was observed in August and September and on those day Mexico and Indonesia were hit by earthquake at 6.6 and 6.3 points respectively.

Although the Sun and the Moon’s alignment cause a small increase in tectonic activity, the effects of the Supermoon on Earth are minor. Many scientists have conducted studies, and they haven’t found anything significant that can link the Super Moon to natural disasters.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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