Jakarta –
There are three astronomical phenomena that will occur in January 2023, namely the quadrantid meteor shower, the micro full moon and the triple conjunction Moon-Venus-Saturn.
Reported detikEdutogether with an explanation related to three astronomical phenomena in January 2023 mentioned by the website of the National Agency for Research and Innovation (BRIN) and Live science:
1. Quadrantid meteor shower peak
The first phenomenon is the Quadrantids meteor shower. In reality, this phenomenon occurred from December 27, 2022 to January 13, 2023. However, it reached its peak on January 4, 2023 at 0300 WIB in the Northeast, then faded as the sun rose.
The intensity of the Quadrantid meteor shower reaches 110 meteors per hour at the zenith (the point in space directly above the observer). This meteor shower comes from asteroid 2003 EH1 and comet C/1490 Y1. This meteor shower is unaffected by the intervention of moonlight.
2. Micro full moon
The first full moon in 2023 will be a micro full moon. This is because the Moon is at the furthest point in its orbit. The path of the Moon around the Earth is an ellipse. At the time of its closest orbit, called perigee, the Moon is 225,291 miles (362,570 kilometers) from Earth. While the longest distance orbit, called the apogee, the Moon-Earth distance is 251,910 miles (405,410 km).
Perigee and apogee do not always coincide with the full moon, but when the full moon coincides with perigee and apogee, they are called supermoons and micromoons. Supermoons appear about 14.5 percent wider and 25 percent brighter in the sky than micromoons, according to the University Space Research Association (USRA).
The moon will reach its full point at 23:07 UTC on January 6 or, according to the BRIN website, on January 7 at 06.08 WIB/07.08 WITA/08.08 WIT.
3. Triple conjunction Moon-Venus-Saturn
The latest phenomenon in January 2023 is the configuration when the Moon-Venus-Saturn. All three would appear to converge in a straight line to observers on Earth.
When this phenomenon takes place, Venus-Saturn is close to the Moon which will appear to be positioned to the left of Venus and Saturn. This phenomenon can be seen from the west from 6.30pm to 7.30pm WIB.
This article was originally posted on detikEdu. Read more here.
(iqk/iqk)
