{"id":220562,"date":"2025-12-31T21:25:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T21:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/220562\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T21:25:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T21:25:12","slug":"rare-alignment-of-earth-moon-and-sun-in-early-january","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/220562\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare alignment of Earth, moon and sun in early January"},"content":{"rendered":"

A cool cosmic coincidence kicks off 2026! The first full moon of the year \u2013 a supermoon<\/a> \u2013 will coincide with Earth\u2019s closest approach to the sun, known as perihelion<\/a>, on and around January 2\u20133. EarthSky will livestream on this rare alignment of Earth, the moon and the sun at noon CST (18 UTC) on December 31, 2025. Watch in the player above or on YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n

EarthSky\u2019s 2026 lunar calendar is available now. Get yours today! Makes a great gift for the new year.<\/a><\/p>\n

Rare alignment of Earth, moon and sun in early January<\/p>\n

The year 2026 begins with a cool alignment in our solar system. Our little family of Earth, sun and moon will be at their closest to each other in the first days of the year.<\/p>\n

The moon reaches perigee, or its closest point to Earth in its elliptical orbit, at 21:43 UTC<\/a> (3:43 p.m. CST) on January 1, 2026. The full moon for January 2026<\/a> is at 10:03 UTC (4:03 a.m. CST) on January 3. That\u2019s close enough to perigee that the moon is considered a supermoon<\/a>. And the date when Earth is closest to the sun in its elliptical orbit \u2013 or perihelion<\/a> \u2013 is 17:16 UTC (11:15 a.m. CST) on January 3. On that date we are 0.9833021 astronomical units (AU<\/a>) from the sun.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not too often that a full moon closest in its orbit to Earth \u2013 a supermoon \u2013 coincides with when Earth is closest to the sun. This close family pairing doesn\u2019t come along very often.<\/p>\n

Other pairings of sun, moon and Earth<\/p>\n

The next time a supermoon coincides with Earth at perihelion is in January 2045. The moon will be at full phase at 10:20 UTC (4:20 a.m. CST) on January 3, 2045. At that time, the moon is approximately 356,773 km (221,688 miles) from Earth, according to Fred Espenak<\/a>. That puts it within 90% of its closest point to Earth.<\/p>\n

And also from Fred Espenak<\/a>, on January 3, 2045, but at 14:56 UTC (8:56 a.m. CST), Earth will be closest to the sun for the year \u2013 at perihelion \u2013 at a distance of 0.9832653 AU. That\u2019s 3677 km (2295 miles) less than Earth\u2019s mean perihelion distance.<\/p>\n

And when did it happen last? Well, that was much longer ago.<\/p>\n

Back in 1912, the January full moon was a supermoon. That\u2019s because the full moon occurred at 13:29 UTC (7:29 a.m. CST) on January 4, 1912. At that time, the moon was 356,380 km (221,444.3 miles) away. And the moon was closest to Earth, at perigee, just minutes later. That was at 13:34 UTC (7:34 a.m. CST) on January 4, when it was a touch closer, at 356,379 km (221443.6 miles) distant. So when was perihelion, or Earth\u2019s closest point to the sun, in 1912? It was at 10:44 UTC (4:44 a.m. CST) on January 3. At that time, Earth was 0.9832088 AU from the sun. That\u2019s 12,128 km (7,536 miles) less than Earth\u2019s mean perihelion distance.<\/p>\n

\"GraphicThere will be a rare alignment of Earth, the moon and the sun in early January. Image via EarthSky.
\nAn alignment with a titanic pull<\/p>\n

A supermoon can cause king tides. These higher-than-usual tides can cause destruction along the shore and reshape the beach. And, in fact, two scientists at Texas State University said in 2012 that the supermoon in January 1912 coinciding with Earth at perihelion could have helped sink the Titanic, which happened in April of that year. As LiveScience reported<\/a>: <\/p>\n

\u2026 these events caused extreme tides that could have dislodged icebergs and flung them into southbound ocean currents.<\/p>\n

LiveScience goes on to say: <\/p>\n

If the astronomers\u2019 calculations are correct, then January 4, 1912, was a truly unusual night. First, the moon\u2019s perigee, or closest approach to Earth, was the most extreme in 1,400 years, and this close approach came within six minutes of the time when the moon was full. Full moons coinciding with lunar perigee have been dubbed \u201csupermoon\u201d events. Second, the moon and sun were aligned that night, causing their gravitational pulls on the Earth to combine and leading to an abnormally high tide, called a \u201cspring tide.\u201d And lastly, Earth\u2019s perihelion had occurred the day before, so the sun\u2019s gravitational pull on Earth was unusually strong that night, too, the researchers argued.<\/p>\n

However, most scientists are skeptical of such a connection. The exact journey of the iceberg and how it got into the path of the Titanic will probably forever remain a mystery. <\/p>\n

Bottom line: There will be a rare alignment of Earth, the moon and the sun in early January. Read more and watch a video.<\/p>\n

Via: <\/p>\n

LiveScience<\/a><\/p>\n

Kelly Kizer Whitt
\n View Articles<\/a><\/p>\n

About the Author:<\/p>\n

Kelly Kizer Whitt – EarthSky\u2019s nature and travel vlogger on YouTube – writes and edits some of the most fascinating stories at EarthSky.org. She’s been writing about science, with a focus on astronomy, for decades. She began her career at Astronomy Magazine and made regular contributions to other outlets, including AstronomyToday and the Sierra Club. She has nine published books, including a children’s picture book, Solar System Forecast, and a young adult dystopian novel, A Different Sky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A cool cosmic coincidence kicks off 2026! The first full moon of the year \u2013 a supermoon \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[3224,61,60,82,247],"class_list":["post-220562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-earth","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}