KUALA LUMPUR, July 12 — Malaysians will once again have the opportunity to witness a supermoon phenomenon, which is expected to occur at 5.09pm tomorrow (July 13).
The Malaysian Space Agency (MYSA), via its official portal, announced that the phenomenon will occur due to the position of the moon being at its closest to earth, referred to as perigee, with a distance of 357,263 kilometres (km).
“The moon revolves around the earth in an elliptical orbit with a mean eccentricity of 0.0549. Thus, the average distance of the moon from the earth (centre to centre) varies at all times, with the closest average distance (perigee) being 363,396 km and the farthest average distance (apogee) being 405,504 km.
“During a supermoon, a full moon can appear up to seven per cent larger than a normal full moon, and appear 14 per cent larger and 30 per cent brighter than a ‘micromoon’,” it said.
The most recent supermoon phenomenon occurred on June 14 and the image was successfully recorded by the Langkawi National Observatory Telescope system. — Bernama
