Get ready for 13 full moons, two supermoons and a blue moon in 2020, NASA says

Stargazers can look forward to a surplus of full moons in 2020 along with some rarer lunar phenomena, a NASA calendar of astronomical events shows.

The 12 months ahead will see 13 full moons — October will have twice as many as usual, the calendar shows. And the second, which falls on Halloween, will be a blue moon.

But that doesn’t mean you can expect to gaze at a moon that’s actually blue while trick or treating — it’s just what people call a second full moon in the same month, Space reports.

“Most blue moons look pale gray and white, indistinguishable from any other moon you’ve ever seen,” NASA explains. “Squeezing a second full moon into a calendar month doesn’t change the physical properties of the moon itself, so the color remains the same.”

Real blue moons, or at least vaguely bluish ones as seen from Earth, are possible but usually require a volcanic eruption somewhere, NASA says.

The next blue moon to fall on Halloween will be in 2039, WDAF reports.

The year ahead also will see back-to-back supermoons, one in March and a second in April, the NASA calendar says.

A supermoon occurs when the moon becomes full while at the closest point to Earth in its rotation, causing it to appear larger than normal, Merriam-Webster says.

Full moons for each month also are sometimes called by other names from various cultures, such as the wolf moon, snow moon and harvest moon, the Farmers’ Almanac says.

The year’s first full moon rises Friday, Jan. 10, NASA says.

The first meteor shower of 2020 also falls in early January, CBS News reports. The Quadrantid meteor shower takes place each January and will peak Friday night this year.

source: yahoo.com