Smallest full moon on Aug 23

New Delhi, Aug 23: Just days after US scientists announced that the moon is shrinking, the Earth's only natural satellite is set to give the sky-gazers a glimpse of its shrunk self.

However, as the scientists have assured earlier on the shrinking phenomenon, there is nothing to worry about now as well as the moon is just going to appear smallest as it would be farthest from Earth.

Tuesday, Aug 23's full moon will be around 15 per cent smaller and its light intensity 30 per cent less as compared to the biggest full moon during 2010.

“The moon will be farthest from the earth tomorrow and, therefore will appear smallest," Director of Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE) CB Devgun is quoted as saying in reports.

“This is because the moon"s orbit is an ellipse with one side 50,000 km closer to earth than the other," he added.

The moon will be visible in its best form at 12:05 am. The full moon will lie more than 2,52,000 miles away, as against its average distance of about 2,39,000 miles.

This comes after the moon appeared the biggest and the brightest on Jan 30, 2010.

The next farthest and smallest full moon will be seen on Oct 12, 2011.

On Aug 20, US scientists declared that the moon is shrinking after examining thousands of photographs of the moon"s surface taken by a NASA orbiter- the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The scientists also said that there was nothing to worry about citing, "The moon may be shrinking, but not by much. It"s not going anywhere."

OneIndia News