Supermoon  (超级月亮)

The Moon's distance varies each month between approximately 357,000 kilometers and 406,000 kilometers due to its elliptical orbit around the Earth. However, Daily Mail reported on March 9 that "conspiracy theorists claim that the moon will be closer to Earth than at any time since 1992 - just 221,567 miles away - and that its gravitational pull will bring chaos to Earth." Whether it is by coincidence or not, several days before March 19, a destructive 9.0 magnitude earthquake rocked Japan on March 11, followed by a devastating tsunami, which results in thousands of deaths and a nuclear crisis. And since then, whether the supermoon can cause natural disasters on Earth has been more carefully studied by scientists and the general public.Supermoon, an astronomical term, was coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979, but it is not widely accepted or used within the astronomy or scientific community, who prefer the term perigee-syzygy. Perigee is the point at which the Moon is closest in its orbit to the Earth, and syzygy is a full or new moon, when the Earth, the Moon and the Sun are aligned. Hence, a supermoon can be regarded as a combination of the two, although they do not perfectly coincide each time.

• World sees super moon Saturday night

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