Astronomy enthusiasts will see a supermoon rise in the night skies this week but this would also be the last of this year. Named the Sturgeon Moon, it will peak on the night of August 11 and August 12 depending on the different time zones. According to NASA, the Moon will peak at 9:36 p.m. EDT on August 11, which corresponds to 7:06 am IST on August 12, however, it would be visible in the night hours.
Interestingly, this supermoon will also coincide with the Perseid Meteor shower which is expected to peak between August 12 and August 13.
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Origin of the Sturgeon Moon
The Sturgeon Moon is just another event that has been named after the events that usually occur at this time of the year. NASA says that it is called the Sturgeon Moon after the large fish that were more easily caught annually in August in the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water in the US. Also called the Green Corn Moon, this full moon also corresponds with the Hindu festival Raksha Bandhan along with Nikini Poya, commemorating the first Buddhist council that occurred about 2,400 years ago.
Since this Moon is also called the ‘Supermoon’, NASA explained that this term was first coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979 as either a new or full moon that occurs when the Moon is within 90% of perigee. A perigee is the position wherein the Moon is the closest to Earth, around 3,63,711 kilometers away.
As mentioned above, this would be the last supermoon of 2022 before it emerges again in 2023. Next year, as many as four supermoons will be spotted followed by four and three in 2024 and 2025.
The Perseid meteor shower
The full Moon will be accompanied by the Perseid meteor shower and one can spot as many as 60 to 100 meteors in an hour. The Perseid meteors are leftovers of the comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle and will cruise through the night sky at a speed of 59 km per second, as per NASA. The Swift-Tuttle was discovered in 1862 by astronomers Lewis Swift and Horace Tuttle, and it takes 133 years to complete one orbit around the Sun and last visited the inner solar system in 1992.
This meteor shower is generally spotted in the Northern hemisphere and you can also look for the Perseus constellation in the sky for a reference point as this is where the Perseid meteors emerge from.
