Crescent moon showing earthshine at sunrise<\/p>\n
getty <\/p>\n
When is the new moon? This weekend, our natural satellite will slip between Earth and the sun \u2014 an event that occurs every 29 days \u2014 briefly becoming a new moon.<\/p>\n
That moment will happen at precisely 2:31 p.m. EST on Sunday, April 27, but there’s something slightly different about this new moon \u2014 it’s a supermoon. You’ve probably heard the term applied to full moons, but they also happen at the new moon (and, in fact, they can occur at any lunar phase). You won’t see it \u2014 a new moon is, by definition, invisible \u2014 but Sunday’s new \u201csupermoon\u201d is important. Here\u2019s why \u2014 and everything else you might want to know about it.<\/p>\n
What Is A Supermoon?<\/strong><\/p>\n The moon’s orbital path around Earth is slightly elliptical, so each month, there\u2019s a point when it\u2019s farthest away (apogee) and closest (perigee). If a new moon coincides with a perigee, it’s closer to Earth and bigger in the night sky, so it’s also known as a new supermoon. A supermoon is defined<\/a> as one that is 10% closer than the average distance. At 2:31 p.m. EST on Sunday, the new moon will be just 221,917 miles (357,141 kilometers) from Earth \u2014 compared to the average distance of 238,900 miles (384,472 kilometers) \u2014 making it the closest new supermoon of 2025. November’s full moon, the “Beaver Moon,” will be the closest full supermoon of 2025.<\/p>\n This is important, of course, because it could mean flooding in coastal areas if winds are strong and rainfall is heavy. A new supermoon causes the strongest king tides of the year because of the combined gravitational effects of both the sun and the moon being on the same side. It could result in especially high tides \u2014 known as spring or king tides \u2014 according to EarthSky<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Moment Of Syzygy<\/strong><\/p>\n Although the closeness to the Earth makes this new moon special, there is no moment of what astronomers call syzygy \u2014 when the sun, moon and Earth align perfectly in a straight line. Technically speaking, it’s always either a waning crescent or a waxing crescent, albeit slight. The only moment of perfect syzygy during a new moon is a total solar eclipse. Last month, on Mar. 29, that almost happened, with a total solar eclipse occurring a few hundred miles above eastern Canada, which saw a 94% partial solar eclipse<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Next Solar Eclipse<\/strong><\/p>\n The next solar eclipse will be a partial solar eclipse on Sept. 21, 2025, which will be visible in Antarctica, New Zealand and the Pacific. It will be followed by an annular solar eclipse \u2014 also called a “ring of fire” \u2014 visible only in a remote region of Antarctica on Feb. 17, 2026. The next total solar eclipse will happen on Aug. 12, 2026, when eastern Greenland, western Iceland and northern Spain experience a short totality of about two minutes.<\/p>\n Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Crescent moon showing earthshine at sunrise getty When is the new moon? This weekend, our natural satellite will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[29888,70,29887,3864,16,15,29889],"class_list":{"0":"post-56664","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-new-moon","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-super-new-moon","11":"tag-supermoon","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-when-is-new-moon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114414001263760200","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}