The Superb Moon Quiz

A supermoon means the moon is roughly 30,000 miles (50,000 kilometers) closer to Earth than at other times during the year. On average, there are four to six supermoons per calendar year.

A supermoon can be as much as 30 percent brighter than a regular moon. "Supermoon" is a relatively new term, as it was coined by astrologer Richard Noelle in 1979.

Conventional wisdom said that the moon had no atmosphere. There's no air, and thus, no wind. But recent research shows that the moon does have a tiny bit of atmosphere, one containing potassium and sodium, neither of which are found in Earth's atmosphere.

On average, the moon is 238,900 miles (384,472 kilometers) from Earth. If you could drive a car at 60 mph (95 kph) through space to the lunar surface, it would take you about six months to arrive at your dusty moon destination.

It was an event that escalated the space race into a space sprint — on Sept. 14, 1959, the Soviet Union successfully executed its Luna 2 mission. It was the first spacecraft ever to reach the surface of the moon.

The apogee is the point in orbit when the moon is farthest from Earth (the perigee is when it's closest).

In many parts of the Northern Hemisphere, the weather begins to warm in March, and the earthworms stir after their winter slumber. Worm castings appear on the ground, causing people to call the March full moon the "worm moon."

The U.S. was losing the space race, in part because the Soviet Union's successful Sputnik missions. U.S. leaders concocted Project A119, which would have detonated a nuclear bomb on the moon's surface, partly for scientific reasons, but more as a show of American military might. The plan was scrapped due to concerns that people would react negatively.

The United States landed the first men on the moon in 1969, and followed that feat with five more manned missions. In total, 12 men have set foot on the moon. All of them have been Americans.

A blue moon is usually the second full moon in a calendar month. It used to mean the third full moon in a season, but the definition has shifted over time.