People in Qatar last night witnessed a rare celestial event of supermoon when the moon came closer to the earth than it had been in the past 20 years, making it the biggest and the brightest full moon of the year.

A supermoon occurs when the moon’s elliptical orbit, also known as perigee, brings the moon closer to the earth, making it look larger and brighter than normal.

This year has three supermoons.

The first had occurred on July 12, and another will fall on September 9.

But the supermoon yesterday was the largest because of its elliptical trajectory due to which it came closest it can get while also being full.

To have three moons in such close proximity is very rare and it is not expected that this will happen again until 2034.

Usually, supermoons occur on average every 13 months.

Yesterday’s supermoon brought it about 31,000 miles (50,000km) closer to earth than it is during its farthest point from the planet.

According to experts, this year’s largest full moon was as much as 14 percent closer and 30 percent brighter than other full moons of the year.

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QNE

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