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Sick of asteroids stealing headlines, moon steps up tonight

La Luna is tired of being upstaged by the space rocks that have recently been whizzing their way past Earth, "closer than the moon." So tonight she's putting on a show. Consider this CNET's friendly reminder to look up.

Edward Moyer Senior Editor
Edward Moyer is a senior editor at CNET and a many-year veteran of the writing and editing world. He enjoys taking sentences apart and putting them back together. He also likes making them from scratch. ¶ For nearly a quarter of a century, he's edited and written stories about various aspects of the technology world, from the US National Security Agency's controversial spying techniques to historic NASA space missions to 3D-printed works of fine art. Before that, he wrote about movies, musicians, artists and subcultures.
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  • Ed was a member of the CNET crew that won a National Magazine Award from the American Society of Magazine Editors for general excellence online. He's also edited pieces that've nabbed prizes from the Society of Professional Journalists and others.
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Edward Moyer
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"Asteroids? Pffft," says La Luna. JLMphoto/Flickr

It seems that these days, every time you sneeze, yawn, or scratch your nose, another giant asteroid is screaming past the Earth, closer than the moon.

We saw it happen last November, when a space stone the size of an aircraft carrier all but sideswiped us. Then in March it happened again, when a relatively modest cosmic rock -- this one the size of a mere passenger jet -- shot on by.

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Well, it looks like the moon is sick of getting upstaged by these pebbly insurgents. As you may have heard, our iconic cratered neighbor has decided to put on a show for us tonight.

It's a super perigee moon, meaning La Luna will be full just as she's at the point in her orbit that's closest to Earth. Thus, if we remember to look up (and please consider this CNET's friendly reminder to do so), we'll see a full moon that's 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than the other full moons of 2012, according to NASA.

And that will no doubt be more impressive than any piddly little asteroids that happen to be in the vicinity (even if they did happen to be visible).

So there, asteroids.

You'll want to catch the moon as it's rising -- it'll look even bigger when it's near the horizon. For more details, and a photo gallery of last year's super perigee performance, go here.

And do please remember to look up this evening.