Brightest supermoon to shine over Switzerland on Thursday

Supermoon in the east and comet in the west Thursday evening Keystone-SDA

An exceptional double celestial spectacle could be visible early Thursday evening in Switzerland, clouds permitting. A supermoon will rise in the east, while comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas continues its course across the western sky.

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The full moon itself will be reached on Thursday at 1:26 pm. This supermoon will light up the sky for three days this week, from Wednesday to Friday.

Also known as the “hunter’s moon”, this full moon will be the biggest and brightest of 2024. A supermoon is around 7% larger and 14% brighter than a regular full moon.

The chances of seeing this spectacle are greatest in the Bernese Oberland, central, eastern and northeastern Switzerland. At the start of the night, cloud cover will still be incomplete in these regions, explained Marco Stoll of the Swiss Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology (MeteoSwiss) to news agency Keystone-ATS.

In the course of the evening, clouds will invade the sky from the west. This is why the chances of seeing the comet and the newborn full moon immediately after sunset will be the best.

Still close to the Sun

Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas is still close to the Sun. However, visibility is likely to be hampered by the light of the rising full moon.

Tsuchinshan-Atlas was discovered in early 2023. It owes its name to the Chinese and South African telescopes that first spotted it. It is one of the non-periodic comets that only return to the vicinity of the Earth after long periods, if at all.

It will be a little higher in the sky every day. But each day, it will fade in brightness as it moves further away from the Sun. Barring any obstacles in its path, Tsuchinshan-Atlas follows an orbit that is not expected to bring it closer to the Earth for another 80,000 years.

The comet probably originated in the Oort cloud, a hypothetical, gigantic assembly of tiny planets and celestial bodies at the very edge of the solar system.

Translated from French by DeepL/jdp

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