If you look up to the skies Wednesday morning, the moon will look brighter than usual. In astronomy, this is known as a supermoon and this one is the biggest in years.
Although the supermoon won't be wearing a cape, it'll certainly be super-sized. Relatively speaking, if you hold a U.S. nickel out against the sky, that's the size of the smallest full moon. A supermoon is about the size of a U.S. quarter.
If the moon orbited Earth in a perfect circle, the distance between the Earth and Moon would not change. But it doesn't. The moon's orbit is slightly oval shaped, known as an elliptical orbit.
The farthest point of its orbit, called its apogee, is about a quarter of a million miles away. The closest point in the orbit is called the perigee, with the Moon between about 220,000 and 230,000 miles away.
You might wonder why the apogee and perigee aren't always the same. That's because the Earth's orbit is also elliptical! So the Sun's gravity on the Moon changes. Where the Earth is in its orbit around the Sun, affects how much pull the moon
When everything lines up just right, the Moon is about 14 percent closer to us than when it's farthest away, and it appears 30 percent brighter. We call a full Moon at apogee - the farthest point in its orbit - a micromoon.
Supermoons aren't rare. We get about three to four each year. And you typically won't notice the bigger size unless you're paying very close attention. But the moon will be noticeably brighter. That's because objects like the moon get brighter fast as they get closer to you. Specifically - they increase at the inverse square of the distance to you. Or, in other words: if the moon is 14 percent closer, it's 30 percent brighter.
To see the supermoon, look outside before bedtime. It'll be highest in the sky at 11:21 p.m. If you're an early riser you'll be able to see it until 6:45 a.m. Wednesday morning.
While supermoons are not rare, the November 2025 supermoon is the closest since February 2019. So check out the bright moon tonight and send us photos if you take any!
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