April's pink supermoon wows across the globe

If you've been stargazing as part of your at-home activities since the pandemic began, you might have seen the biggest and brightest super moon of the year on Tuesday night.

Supermoons occur when the moon is within 90% of perigee, which is its closest approach to Earth in orbit. The moon will appear brighter and bigger in the night sky, and hopefully no clouds and inclement weather obscured the view.

April's full moon, also known as the pink moon, happens to be the closest of the year. People around the world took snaps of the phenomenon around midnight on Tuesday night and into the early morning hours of Wednesday, according to EarthSky.org.

The first full moon of spring, its name comes from native North American wildflowers that bloom in early springtime: Phlox subulata, known as "moss pink."

But, don't think that the moon actually looked pink, it just appeared more gold as it rose above the horizon. That's due to an effect caused by the atmosphere, similar to how the sun can appear more red as it rises and sets around the sun, according to NASA.

Space experts also say there are 12 full moons in a year because one occurs each month. But in 2020, October will have two full moons, one on October 1 and again on October 31.

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This year will have up to four supermoons in total, when the moon appears even brighter and larger in our sky. The next one will occur on May 7.

As for this month, keep your eyes peeled mid-April for a grouping of Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and the moon in a magnificent, bright alignment. NASA revealed that this won't happen again for a couple of years.

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