Moon to be at its closest distance from Earth in 992 years; Will it be visible in India?

The Moon this weekend will bring a once-in-a-lifetime event as it will be at its closest distance from Earth in almost a millennium. According to astronomy experts, our cosmic neighbour will be approximately 3,56,568 km from Earth on January 21, bringing it the closest it has been since the year 1030. 

Citing a set of data called DE431 by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), EarthSky reported that the next time the Moon comes this close to our planet will be 345 years from now. 

Where will the Moon be visible from?

The Moon will not be visible from India this weekend since it is in the new Moon phase, meaning it is aligned in such a position that the Earth and the Sun are on opposite sides. The Moon doesn’t usually pass directly between Earth and the Sun, due to the inclination of the Moon’s orbit. It only passes near the Sun from our perspective on Earth.

This still makes for a significant event as the next time the Moon is at the perigee, the closest point to Earth will be in the year 2367. Since it is at perigee, the Moon has been named “supermoon” as opposed to a “micromoon” when it is at apogee (farthest distance).

The Moon revolves around Earth in an elliptical orbit which is a stretched circle and the different positions of the Moon while orbiting results in varying distances. Notably, the weekend also brings the planets Venus and Saturn in conjunction and within less than one degrees in the sky. The two planets are estimated to rise after 6 pm IST in India in New Delhi and will start to dip toward the horizon. Interestingly, both planets will be bright enough to be spotted with the naked eye.