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Brace yourselves: it’s supermoon day
Bemused scientists refute predictions that bigger moon will cause chaos
Saturday is supermoon day – when the moon will be closer to the Earth than at any time in 18 years – and scientists have been rushing to reject claims that the phenomenon can cause natural disasters and social unrest.
Astrologers, meanwhile, have been warning of the danger that may accompany a supermoon – which will appear just 14 per cent bigger to the naked eye and is just one 4,000th of a percent nearer than it was at the same point in its orbit last year.
But the replies of experts quoted in news outlets worldwide betray a level of exasperation at having even been asked. Sathon Vijarnwannaluck, a physics lecturer at Chulalongkorn University, told the Bangkok Post: "People should not panic about something that is not supported by scientific studies. How many times have we had earthquakes? I believe that earthquakes happen more frequently than supermoons."
Vijarnwannaluck was responding to predictions from Pinyo Pongcharoen, president of the International Astrology Association, that the supermoon would cause more social conflict as lunar power tended to make people more unstable. He also warned people to prepare for natural disasters, especially those involving water.
And in the Times of India, Anil Yadav, of the Indira Gandhi Planetarium, contributed his debunking of the supermoon myth, saying: "Lunar effects are just a tiny force when compared to the energy needed to spin the earth. The moon can have no impact at all.
"The disasters of tsunami and earthquake are caused by earth's internal movement. While earthquakes result from intrusion of layers, tsunamis occur when the sea floor moves."
Meanwhile some media organisations have, perhaps in dubious taste, linked the moon's proximity to the recent earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand.
The Daily Mail asked: "Is the Japanese earthquake the latest natural disaster to have been caused by a 'supermoon'?" (It is tempting to point out that the answer to this question, in common with many others posed by the Mail down the ages is almost certainly "no").
A supermoon, or lunar perigee, is caused by the moon's oval-shaped orbit, which means the satellite's distance from Earth is constantly changing. ·
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Your logic is flawed. The mean weight of your molecules is irrelevant, you need to look at the weight of the individual molecules that make up the air. Answer me this, if water is so light why doesn't it float away? And don't get your answer from half understood wikipedia articles this time please. A basic chemistry education might help.
I am not superstitious. But it is time to look at the creator and marvel at his creation. Do not scoff. I thank you Firozali A.Mulla DBA
Gareth Berry - You have simply shown up your own ignorance. Please don't try to 'correct' people if you don't know basic physics and chemistry. 'Hydrogen gas' is NOT 'a component of water' (!!!), hydrogen atoms are. Water molecules are made of one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms. The numbers I gave were the sums of the atomic weights making up each molecule to give molecular weight, and were correct. Read carefully Gareth, the relative molecular masses are as follows: water, H2O = 18; dry air is principally made up of O2 molecules (molecular mass 32), N2 molecules (molecular mass 28), argon (molecular mass 40) and CO2 (molecular mass 44). These four gasses constitute 99.998% of dry air. The mean relative molecular mass of air molecules is 28.97 compared to 18 for water molecules. The mass of each water molecule is thus considerably smaller than the mass of each air molecule, on average only around 62% the mass of air molecules.
Dear previous comment writers, just FYI it might be worth reading up on a subject before displaying your ignorance in public.
Just as an example "Every air and mineral molecule, and every metal atom has a higher molecular weight so higher mass than a water molecule (O2 = 32, N2 = 28 etc; H2O = 18)" what about hydrogen gas (H2), a component of water. Water (H2O) weighs less than H2 does it? Does the oxygen make it lighter?
"Lunar effects are just a tiny force when compared to the energy needed to spin the earth. The moon can have no impact at all." What absolute rubbish, and what a complete non-sequitur. Why compare the gravitational effects of the moon with the energy needed to spin the earth? It's not the earth spinning that causes the tides (as Galileo wrongly thought) but the gravitational effects of the sun and moon. Even the much smaller gravitational effects of an alignment of planets has a measurable effect. The gravitational effect of the moon has a huge effect on the earth, in respect to ocean tides, the jetstream, and internally within the earth where it is liquid rock and iron beneath the earth's crust, so subject to tidal forces like the oceans. Every air and mineral molecule, and every metal atom has a higher molecular weight so higher mass than a water molecule (O2 = 32, N2 = 28 etc; H2O = 18), so has a greater gravitational attraction by the moon than the water molecules in the sea, plus there is a heck of a lot more mass within the earth than the relatively small amount of water in the oceans, so since we can easily see the effects on the oceans we can infer much greater forces internally within the earth due to the moon. The earth and the moon form a coupled rotating system. The moon does not rotate around the centre of the earth, but the earth-moon system rotates around a barycentre, which is within the sphere of the earth, but not on the axis of the earth's rotation. I'm afraid that those Thai and Indian scientists or other scientists who think that the moon cannot be a factor in earthquakes etc have never bothered to study the evidence, so they can hardly be called scientists. Earthquakes and volcanoes etc are the result of the release of energies due to movement of plates in the earth (often subduction). "The disasters of tsunami and earthquake are caused by earth's internal movement. While earthquakes result from intrusion of layers, tsunamis occur when the sea floor moves." Quite so. The movement is not always steady, but pressure builds up until it is released in sudden slips. It is not difficult to see that gravitational perturbations can give rise to such release of stored energy. Moreover, there is abundant correlation between the positions of the sun and moon and the sun's activity not only on tides and weather but on earthquakes and volcanoes as well. We should expect more earthquakes and volcanoes over the next couple of years.
""Lunar effects are just a tiny force when compared to the energy needed to spin the earth. The moon can have no impact at all."
What a load of nonsense, as a scientist he surely knows that the tides of the oceans and seas are completely tied to the attraction of the moon's gravity upon them. I am not sure how to relate 1/4000th of 1% to an increase in the moon's apparent size by 14%, but in any eventuality it is clear that the moon can and does impact the earth, although that is not to say that this weekend it will trigger anything specifically since the movement towards the earth is gradual not sudden. However, when I see the establishment deny any possibilities and indeed misinform i this way, then it makes me wonder why they are doing this, but there again I don't believe the alarmists necessarily.