This Monday (23), at 1:44 am (Brasília time), the moon reached the perigeewhich is the point of its orbit closest to the Earth.
According to the platform In-The-Sky.orgthe distance from the moon from the earth varies because its orbit is not perfectly circular – it is slightly oval, drawing a path called an ellipse. As it crosses this elliptical path around our planet each month, its distance ranges from 356,500 km in the perigue and 406,700 km in the apogeus (farther point).
The angular size of the star also varies by the same factor, between 29.4 and 33.5 minutes of arc. Upon reaching the period, our natural satellite is up to 14% brighter in the sky when visible. This, however, is difficult to detect in practice, as the phases of the moon are changing at the same time.
This time, for example, it is two days to start the new phase when a new lunar cycle begins.
Moon phases
The New Moon marks the beginning of the month on Lunar calendars, such as Muslim, and in Lunissolar calendars, such as Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist.
A lunation or lunar cycle, as the time interval between new moons is called, is subtly variable, with an average duration of 29.5 days. During this period, it goes through the four main phases (new, growing, full and waning), and each extends for about seven days.
There are also the “interasses”: a growing and growing gibosa (between the new and full) and waning gibosa and waning fourth (between the flood and the waning) stages. When it reaches the perigeum this week, the moon will be in the gibosa waning phase, with 12 days to start the new lunar cycle.
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On Wednesday (25), at 2:50, she reaches the perihelion, which is the closest point to the sun in her current orbit-which will be 1,014 astronomical units (UA) distance (just over 150 million km).
An article published in the magazine PLANATARY AND SPACE SCIENCE It points out that the moon can be a more practical and profitable option for spatial mining than asteroids in orbit.
According to the study, many of the impacts that created lunar craters also left precious metals behind, such as platinum. This discovery paves the way for the possibility of commercial exploitation of these resources by companies in the future. Learn more here.
