By The Numbers

It’s a marvelous night for a moondance

Marketplace Staff Sep 25, 2015
1 hour, 12 minutes

That is how long skywatchers have to view a rare event Sunday: a total eclipse of a supermoon. A supermoon, when the moon nuzzles 31,000 miles closer to the Earth, happens once a year, NASA says, and makes the celestial body seem 14 percent bigger. Lunar eclipses, when the Earth’s shadow passes over the moon, typically happen twice a year. The simultaneous event occurs less often; the last was in 1982. Look up at 6:07 p.m. PDT to see a noticeable shadow fall on the moon. The eclipse starts at 7:11 p.m. 

5 feet 10 inches

When the pope comes to visit, you give him the best seat in the house. At Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in Philadelphia, that would be a 5-foot 10-inch custom armchair made of American walnut with papal emblem and crosses. Inmates crafted the one-of-a-kind piece as part of a vocational program. After the pope’s visit Sunday, the chair will be sent to the Vatican.

2017

That’s the year China will start implementing a cap-and-trade system that will put a price on emitting carbon into the environment. And there’s some positive feedback from experts who say they are hopeful for the program’s success, which was announced Friday during President Xi Jinping’s visit to the White House. One reason: “A high-level announcement like this helps on the implementation side,” said Alex Wang, a UCLA law professor

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