'Step outside, look up': NASA shares stunning image of 'Wolf Moon', explains what it is

NASA on December 30 shared the image of a “Wolf Moon” on its official social media accounts showing Earth’s natural satellite in full view for the 13th and the last time in 2020. The US space agency further explained the reason behind calling the full moon as the “wolf moon”. NASA elaborated that different cultures have specific names for each of the full moons that appear throughout the year and those names coincide with what is happening in the nature around the same time. 

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Why is it called the ‘Wold Moon’?

The Algonquin tribes, that can be found in the northern and eastern United States named this moon, ‘Wolf moon’ because the pack of wolves that howled angrily outside the villages amid the cold weather. It further said that another name of the wolf name is the ‘Ice Moon’ and by month the full moon in December is also called the ‘Cold Moon’. The last full moon of 2020 appeared in Earth-based longitude at 10:28 PM EST opposite to the Sun on December 29 and it was set to appear for three days.

Apart from the tribes in the US, NASA said, “Europeans called this the Moon after Yule, a 3-day winter solstice festival in pre-Christian Europe. In the 10th Century King Haakon I associated Yule with Christmas as part of the Christianization of Norway, and this association has spread throughout the countries that follow European traditions. Another English name for this Moon is the Old Moon.”

“As the full Moon closest to the winter solstice, this is the Long Night Moon. The plane of the Moon's orbit around the Earth nearly matches the plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun,” it added further.

Mentioning all cultures across the globe, the US space agency also noted what the full moon in December depicts for Hindus and said it is ‘Datta Jayanti’ to commemorate the birthday of the Hindu god Dattatreya (Datta). It further added, “For the Buddhists of Sri Lanka, this is Unduvap Poya” before noting that the same moon can be called ‘Chang'e Moon’ “after the three Chinese lunar landers that launched this time of year in 2013, 2018, and 2020.”

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