A supermoon is set to light up the night sky on Tuesday.
This will be the second of three back-to-back supermoons this year. The first, a “super blood wolf moon,” occurred on Jan. 21. The third will fall on March 21.
A supermoon is a full moon that occurs when the moon is at the closest point in its orbit to Earth. Supermoons may appear bigger and brighter than ordinary full moons.
This month, the moon will be closest to Earth at 1:07 a.m. on Feb. 19.
NASA says it will be the brightest and largest full moon of the year, and it will look especially large when it rises and sets. This is an illusion that occurs because there are other objects, like trees or buildings, in our line of sight. Scientists explain our brain is tricked into thinking the moon is closer to those objects than it really is.
In folklore, February’s full moon is sometimes called the “snow moon” because heavy snowfall is common in the winter.
