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The last full moon of the year, Cold Moon, graced the sky Wednesday night, with people from across the world capturing the beautiful sight and sharing the photos on Twitter.
The 12th and last full moon of the year peaked Wednesday at 11:09 p.m. ET. Next year will see 13 full moons gracing the skies, as per Inverse.
The Cold Moon turned out to be a treat for the sky gazers, since a full moon is six times brighter than a half moon, according to Inverse.
Mankind’s next date with a full moon will be at 6:09 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, January 6, 2023. In keeping with the naming of moons, the January full moon is called the Wolf Moon.
Interestingly, the December full moon is called the Cold Moon due to the cold weather during which it rises in the sky. The moon heralds winter over much of the United States. Also called the long night moon, it was predicted to stay in the sky longer than most other full moons, according to Farmer’s Almanac.
The Moon Before Yule was another name for the Cold Moon given by Europeans since it signals the arrival of the Christmas festival. Some other weird and interesting names for the Cold Moon, include Drift Clearing Moon, Frost Exploding Trees Moon, Moon of the Popping Trees, Hoar Frost Moon, Snow Moon, and Winter Maker Moon, as per the outlet.
The Orion spacecraft, part of the Artemis 1 mission, also captured photos of the moon in space recently.
NASA shared the photos captured by Orion on Instagram, on its sixth day on the mission. These are believed to be “the closest photos of the moon from a human-rated vessel since Apollo.”
“No crater photos than these,” NASA posted. “This photo was taken using Orion’s optical navigation system, which captured black-and-white images of the Earth and moon in different phases and distances. This vital technology demonstration on the Artemis I flight test will help prove its effectiveness for future crewed missions.”
These and some other photos of the moon’s surface captured by the spacecraft are available on NASA Johnson Space Center’s Flickr account.
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