{"id":10998,"date":"2025-08-20T06:54:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T06:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/10998\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T06:54:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T06:54:08","slug":"august-has-a-black-moon-see-why-the-rare-phenomenon-exists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/10998\/","title":{"rendered":"August has a black moon; See why the rare phenomenon exists"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;right:0;bottom:0;width:100%;height:100%;z-index:2\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/85480192007-usatsi-24027297-168407590-lowres.jpg\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"vidplayicon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/appservices\/universal-web\/universal\/icons\/icon-play-alt-white.svg\" alt=\"play\" style=\"height:40px;margin:auto 18px auto 27px;width:40px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>NASA ordered to develop nuclear power plant for moon by 2030s<\/p>\n<p>NASA is now focused on building a nuclear power plant on the moon for future lunar surface missions and to bolster national security.<\/p>\n<p>A rare black moon is set to occur this week, though night sky observers will not be able to see it.<\/p>\n<p>The astral phenomenon is set to leave a moon-sized dark spot in the heavenly panorama on the night of Saturday, Aug. 23.<\/p>\n<p>Friday&#8217;s black moon is considered a &#8220;seasonal&#8221; version of the event as it will be the third new moon in a season that has four \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/stargazing\/a-rare-black-moon-rises-with-the-sun-on-aug-23-2025-heres-what-to-expect\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">according to Space.com<\/a>. Normally a season has three new moons but since the lunar cycle does not exactly align a fourth one occurs about every 33 months.<\/p>\n<p>There is nothing to see from the moon itself during a black moon as with all new moons the sunlit side faces away from Earth. However, that may provide a black canvas for space watchers to find stars and planets \u2013 weather permitting.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s what to know about the black moon.<\/p>\n<p>Why do black moons occur?<\/p>\n<p>A\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.almanac.com\/what-black-moon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">black moon<\/a>\u00a0can happen under three astronomical patterns, according to Space.com and the Old Farmer&#8217;s Almanac.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Two new moons occur in one month, the second being a monthly black moon.<\/li>\n<li>In a season with four new moons, the third new moon is a seasonal black moon.<\/li>\n<li>When there are no new moons in January, February and March, each has two new moons, making the second of each a black moon.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When was the last black moon?<\/p>\n<p>The last seasonal Black Moon occurred on May 19, 2023, according to Space.com.<\/p>\n<p>When is the next black moon?<\/p>\n<p>The next black moon will occur on Aug. 31, 2027, but that will be a &#8220;monthly&#8221; black moon where two new moons occur in one calendar month, according to Space.com.<\/p>\n<p>What was the last notable moon phenomenon?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/nation\/2025\/08\/08\/august-2025-full-moon-sturgeon\/85556941007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">August&#8217;s full moon<\/a> was known as the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/life\/horoscopes\/2025\/08\/09\/sturgeon-august-full-moon-horoscopes-zodiac-signs\/85559750007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sturgeon Moon<\/a>, named after the fish.<\/p>\n<p>It peaked in the early morning hours of Aug. 9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASA ordered to develop nuclear power plant for moon by 2030s NASA is now focused on building a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[270],"tags":[829,10627,10631,582,10629,1430,1437,1433,1439,18,10628,19,17,1216,1231,10626,10630,7980,1218,1232,1221,1207,1226,713,1234,1431,3021,133,451,1217,1093,10632,835,716,1432,1438],"class_list":{"0":"post-10998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-and","9":"tag-astrology","10":"tag-astrology-and-horoscopes","11":"tag-astronomy","12":"tag-calendars","13":"tag-central","14":"tag-central-region","15":"tag-east","16":"tag-east-region","17":"tag-eire","18":"tag-horoscopes","19":"tag-ie","20":"tag-ireland","21":"tag-modular","22":"tag-modular-story","23":"tag-moon","24":"tag-moon-natural-satellite","25":"tag-natural","26":"tag-network","27":"tag-network-trending","28":"tag-neutral","29":"tag-outer","30":"tag-outer-space","31":"tag-overall","32":"tag-overall-neutral","33":"tag-region","34":"tag-satellite","35":"tag-science","36":"tag-space","37":"tag-story","38":"tag-time","39":"tag-time-u0026-calendars","40":"tag-trending","41":"tag-u0026","42":"tag-west","43":"tag-west-region"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}