Even after the ball drops at midnight on Dec. 31, the new year will bring another big, bright, shining orb at the start of 2018. At the end of January, skywatchers will be able to glimpse a rare phenomenon: a super blue blood moon. The event may sound like a complicated tongue twister, but it’s really just the confluence of three celestial occurrences. A blue moon is the second full moon of a month — in January,
there will be a full moon on New Year’s Day and on Jan. 31 — while a supermoon is when the full moon appears larger and brighter to the naked eye. These two events will coincide with a total lunar eclipse, or blood moon, on Jan. 31. Most days the moon is nearly 238,855 miles from Earth, but during the supermoon, it will be approximately 223,068 miles away, according to NASA. During a supermoon, the moon can appear up to 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than usual. READ MORE
