Mahatma Gandhi said, “When I admire the wonder of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in worship of the Creator.”
Throughout the year, Earth’s inhabitants have been delighted and amazed by all of the celestial wonders that have occurred over the past few months and will transpire in the coming weeks. We have been given a bedazzling night sky as the planets Mars, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn appeared
and we will see a once-in-a-lifetime transit
at the beginning of June when Venus crosses the face of the sun.
On Saturday night, it was the moon’s time to shine and beg for our indulgence. Our satellite provided a spectacle for the second year in a row that gave artists their muse and inspiration to produce a masterpiece (are we becoming too philosophical?).
The moon made its nearest approach to the Earth in its elliptical orbit, which is also known as perigree. A full moon happening at perigree takes place every 411.776 days. The last one took place in March of last year.
Saturday’s supermoon was 221,802 miles (356,955 kilometers) away; therefore, it appeared 14 percent larger and 16 percent brighter. It became officially full at 11:35 p.m. EST.
In Toronto, it was clear skies throughout the entire night and city slickers were able to glare at the enormity and superiority of the moon and catch a glimpse of the beauty of our vast universe, which is a rare feat for metropolis dwellers.
Unfortunately, the planet’s inhabitants missed another celestial annual event. The Eta Aquarid meteor shower
took place this weekend, but the supermoon outshined all other shooting stars. This meteor shower is correlated with Halley’s Comet that reaches its peak activity every year at the beginning of May.
reported earlier this week that many thought the world would end due to the moon coming closer to our planet. Scientists confirmed that nothing catastrophic would take place, except for a possible increase in tectonic activity and a more intense tidal pull because of the gravity when the moon and sun line up.
The conventional wisdom is that the Earth would not survive if it was not for our moon, but a study produced last year
suggested it would only shift our planet’s axis by about 10 degrees if our moon did not exist.
There are many theories as to how our moon was born. Scientists have not been able to conclusively identify the origins of the moon, but several theories have been proposed, such as the Earth first having two moons and then collided to form one