On Saturday, January 21, the inhabitants of the Earth will be able to observe a record new moon. The Earth's satellite will approach it at the closest distance at which it was during the new moon, in 992 years, according to Time and date.

The next time the moon will approach Earth at this distance on a new moon in 345 years. This means that the new moon on January 21 will be the closest in 1337 years..

[see_also ids\u003d"

The moon does not revolve around the earth in a perfect circle, its orbit is more like an ellipse. That is, the distance between the planet and its satellite changes. The point at which the Moon comes closest to the Earth is called perigee, and the farthest point is called apogee..

If the new moon or full moon coincides with perigee or apogee, you can observe supermoons or micromoons, when the moon seems especially large or small.

During the new moon on January 21, the Moon will be invisible in the sky and will be on the line between the Earth and the Sun..

Recall that on January 4, the Earth approached the minimum distance to the Sun this year, during a phenomenon called perihelion.. This distance varies from year to year, in 2023 it was 147 million kilometers..