SUPERMOON WILL WORSEN IDALIA'S STORM SURGE: This week’s supermoon is making matters worse for Florida's Gulf Coast by enhancing tides, which is expected to worsen Hurricane Idalia's storm surge. "Surge and tide work together to produce the ultimate flooding that might occur in a hurricane," Jamie Rhome of the National Hurricane Center told CNN. The effect, called a "perigean spring tide," will be near its maximum for all of 2023 just as the hurricane makes landfall.
THE SUPER BLUE MOON: This week, a quirky mixture of science, hyperbole and folklore will cause millions of people to go outside and stare at the sky. We're talking about the Super Blue Moon. This is what it will look like:
Above: The supermoon of July 14, 2022, photographed by Oliver Schwenn of Aarhus, Denmark [full story]
No, it won't be blue. The supermoon on Wednesday evening, Aug. 30th, will look a lot like any ordinary full Moon. However, there are three things that make it special.
First, the science: This week's full Moon is the biggest and brightest of 2023. Astronomers call it a "perigee moon." The Moon's orbit is an ellipse with one side ("perigee") about 50,000 km closer than the other ("apogee"). Full Moons that occur on the perigee side of the Moon's orbit are extra big and bright. This week's Moon will become full within 9 hours of perigee, making it the closest full Moon of the year (357,181 km away).
Next, the hyperbole: About 10 years ago, many science journalists and even some astronomers started calling perigee Moons "supermoons." A supermoon is 8% bigger and 15% brighter than an average full Moon. Would you call Clark Kent "super" if he were only 8% faster and 15% stronger than an average human? No, but let's roll with it! People love super things.
Finally, the folklore: You've probably heard the expression "Once in a blue Moon." It means "rare." Modern folklore provides a more precise definition. When there are two full Moons in a calendar month, the second one is "blue." Such blue moons come along every 2 to 3 years. August already had one full Moon on Aug. 2nd; now it is about to have another (blue) one on Aug. 30th.
Don't take "blue" too literally. Most blue Moons are pale gray when they are high in the sky, or orange when they are rising and setting. However, if the Moon *does* turn blue, it could mean that a volcano is erupting or a wildfire is nearby. Run!
In summary, this week's Super Blue Moon will be about 15% bigger than an average moon and, in the eye of the beholder, immeasurably prettier. Go out after sunset on Aug. 30th, look east, and watch it rise into the darkening summer sky. If you take a picture, submit it here.
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PILEUS CLOUDS OVER PANAMA: Earlier this week in Panama, Tino Wiedemann looked up into the afternoon sky and saw what appeared to be a rainbow-colored flying saucer landing on top of a storm cloud. "I had never seen anything like it!" says Wiedemann. "My friends and I photographed it from three different locations in Panama."
This is a great example of a "pileus cloud." On hot sunny afternoons in humid places like Panama, cumulus clouds boil toward the sky, pushing layers of moist air above them. Within these layers, water cools and condenses to form droplet-rich cloud caps. "Pileus" means cap in Latin.
Sometimes, on very stormy afternoons, cumulus clouds rush upward at high speed, forming the pileus very quickly. Water droplets within the cap tend to be all the same size. When sunlight hits such a perfect cloud, it shines with iridescent colors like a giant rainbow-colored flying saucer.
LASER-ETCHED SUPERMOON: On Aug. 22nd, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched a cosmic ray balloon to the stratosphere. This laser-etched Moon cube went along for the ride, ascending to an altitude of 101,140 feet:
You can have it for $119.95. The students are selling these cubes as a fund-raiser for their cosmic ray ballooning program. It's an authentic representation of the Moon, with all of the craters, mountains and lava plains accurately portrayed.
The Moon-cube comes with a unique gift card showing the item floating at the top of Earth's atmosphere. The interior of the card tells the story of the flight and confirms that this gift has been to the edge of space and back again.
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