Full moon is closest to Earth this week, first of three months with 'supermoon'
June's full moon arrives at perigee, the point in the Moon's orbit closest to Earth, making it appear 14% bigger and 30% brighter than a full moon at apogee.
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The moon reaches its full phase on Tuesday. About 12 hours later, it will also be at perigee, or the closest point to earth in its orbit. This earns it a supermoon label.
It was at its fullest Tuesday morning, just before 8 a.m.
Supermoon isn't a scientific term. It was created by an astrologer (not astronomer) in the 70s. The concept lay dormant for a couple of decades until it gained attention again. We aren't really sure why.
In additional the astrological definition, a NASA astrophysicist, an astronomy magazine, a radio series and and a website focused on time and date calculations each came up with their own slightly different definition. This is why you will see sometimes supermoon mentioned in some places but not others.
As the moon turns fuller, it will move through the constellation Scorpius. It will pass the bright star Antares, known to astronomers as "the heart of the scorpion".
Antares is often confused for Mars because of its slightly reddish color. While the planet Mars is just over 200 million miles away, Antares is a red supergiant star over 550 light years away and about 12 times more massive than our sun.
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