The last full moon of 2020: “Cold Moon” reaches TODAY’s peak worldwide and appears in the sky for more than 15 hours
- The last full moon of 2020 will reach the whole world on Tuesday night
- It’s called the “Cold Moon” because it appears when winter begins to set
- The full moon will rise at 16:19 ET and reach its peak with illumination at 22:30 ET
- This full moon is also called the “Long Night Moon” or “The Moon Before Yule”.
Space is giving Earth one last gift this year – the last full moon of 2020.
The “cold moon” will rise from the northeast sky at 16:19 ET (21:19 GMT), with maximum illumination at 22:30 ET (3:30 AM GMT) on Tuesday night.
The nickname comes from the Native American tribe Mohwaks and refers to the drop in temperatures in December, which means that winter has arrived.
The moon will be in the sky for more than 15 hours from Tuesday evening to Wednesday morning, becoming the longest full moon of the year.
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The “cold moon” will rise from the northeast sky at 16:19 ET (21:19 GMT), with maximum illumination at 22:30 ET (3:30 AM GMT) on Tuesday night. Pictured is the full moon in St. Petersburg, Russia
NASA’s Gordon Johnston wrote in a recent blog post: “This year, the moonlight will interfere with the visualization of the annual Quadrantid meteor shower, expected to be active from December 28, 2020 to January 12, 2021, reaching its peak. on the morning of January 3, 2021. ”
The last full month of the year has a variety of names, depending on your location.
It is sometimes called the full moon of the long night, which refers to “the winter night is really long and because the moon is above the horizon for a long time,” according to the Farmer’s Almanac.
“The full moon of winter has a high trajectory in the sky because it is opposite to a low sun.”
The nickname comes from the Native American tribe Mohwaks and refers to the drop in temperatures in December, which means that winter has arrived. Pictured is the full moon hanging over Maryland
Another nickname comes for the European pagans who called it the Moon before Yule.
This full moon was a celebration of the winter solstice marking the beginning of winter.
In the southern hemisphere, where the seasons are reversed, the full moon of December is often called the Strawberry Moon, the Honey Moon, or the Rose Moon.
Johnston notes that it could also be called Chang’e Moon, following China’s three successful monthly landings, which were launched at this time of year.
“These missions are named after the Chinese goddess of the moon, Chang’e, who lived on the moon with her pet rabbit, Yutu,” writes Johnston.
“Chang’e 3 Land and its accompanying Yutu rover launched on December 1 and landed on the moon on December 14, 2013.”
The moon will be in the sky for more than 15 hours from Tuesday evening to Wednesday morning, becoming the longest full moon of the year. The moon setting behind a hill on the morning of December 29 in Chile
In the picture is an image from NASA that shows what the moon will look like on the evening of December 29
“The Land of Chang’e 4 and its accompanying rover Yutu-2 launched on December 7, 2018 and landed on January 3, 2019.”
“Chang’e 5’s monthly return mission was launched on November 23 (in UTC, November 24 in China’s time zone) and returned to Earth on December 16, 2020, the first monthly sample of mankind to return from 1976 ‘
The full moon will appear until Thursday morning and the next time a full moon will appear on January 28, called the “Full Moon of the Wolf”.
Scientists do not agree on how the moon formed, but many believe it was the result of an impact between the earth and another planet.
Many researchers believe that the moon formed after the Earth was hit by a planet the size of Mars billions of years ago.
This is called the huge impact hypothesis.
The theory suggests that the moon is made up of debris from a collision between our planet and a body about 4.5 billion years ago.
The colliding body is sometimes called Theia, after the mythical Greek Titan who was the mother of Selene, the goddess of the moon.
Many researchers believe that the moon formed after the Earth was hit by a planet the size of Mars billions of years ago. This is called the huge impact hypothesis
But a mystery persisted, revealed by the rocks that Apollo astronauts brought from the moon: Why are the moon and Earth so similar in their composition?
Over the years, several different theories have emerged to explain the similar footprints of the Earth and the moon.
Perhaps the impact created a huge cloud of debris that mixed well with the Earth and then condensed to form the moon.
Or Theia could have happened to be chemically similar to young Earth.
A third possibility is that the moon was made of earth materials, rather than Theia, although this would have been a very unusual type of impact.