Friday, December 12, 2008

Friday Night Brings "Year's Biggest Full Moon"


This Friday night will bring the biggest full moon of the year as Earth's natural satellite reaches its closest point to our planet. Earth, the moon and the sun are all bound together by gravity, which keeps us going around the sun and keeps the moon going around us as it goes through phases. The moon makes a trip around Earth every 29.5 days. But the orbit is not a perfect circle.

The moon's average distance from us is about 238,855 miles (384,400 km). Friday night it will be just 221,560 miles (356,567 km) away. It will be 14 percent bigger in our sky and 30 percent brighter than some other full moons during the year, according to NASA. See Moon Pictures here.

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