India witnesses supermoon
Kolkata, Aug 1: India joined the rest of the world in witnessing the supermoon on Tuesday night, the first of the two this month.
Explaining the phenomenon, astrophysicist Debiprosad Duari said the moon goes around the Earth once in 27.3 days in an elliptic orbit. As a result, at some point in its orbit, it will be farthest from the Earth, the distant point being called the apogee, and at some other time it will be closest to Earth, which is called perigee.
"When we have a full moon near the perigee, closest to the Earth, we get what is termed as a supermoon," he explained, adding that it will again be visible on August 30.
The last time two supermoons were seen in the same month was in 2018, and the next such phenomenon will be witnessed in 2037, he said.
The 'supermoon' was visible from Delhi, Lucknow, Bengaluru and Punjab, but sky gazers in Kolkata missed it due to a thick blanket of clouds.
"It is exciting as this coincides with the time Chandrayaan 3 module will be injected into the lunar transfer trajectory," Duari said.
Chandrayaan 3 is expected to make a soft landing on the moon on August 23.
From the Earth, a supermoon seems 7 per cent bigger and 16 per cent brighter than a normal full moon, he said.
The average distance between the Earth and its moon is 3,84,000 km. The distance can vary because of the elliptical shape of the moon's orbit around the Earth, and can range from 3,56,000 km at perigee to 4,04,000 km at apogee.
On Tuesday night, the moon was at a distance of 3,57,530 km from the Earth, he said.
On August 30, the moon will be even closer -- 3,57,344 km from the Earth, Durai said.
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NEET student hangs self in Rajasthan's Sikar
Jaipur (PTI): A student preparing for the NEET examination allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in a rented room in Rajasthan's Sikar on Friday, police said.
According to the police, the student allegedly hanged himself from a ceiling fan using his sister's scarf while one sister was attending coaching classes and the other was in the bathroom.
He had appeared in the NEET UG exam 2026, which was cancelled due to paper leak, they said.
Udyog Nagar SHO Rajesh Kumar said that the deceased, identified as Pradeep Meghwal, was a resident of Kanika ki Dhani village in Jhunjhunu's Gudha Gaudji area.
He had been living in a rented room in Sikar's Jaldhari Nagar area with his two sisters while preparing for NEET over the last three years.
His elder sister later found him hanging and informed the landlord and police after bringing him down, officials said.
The SHO said the body was kept at SK Hospital mortuary, and a postmortem had not been conducted.
The student's father, Rajesh Kumar Meghwal, told police that Pradeep's NEET examination had gone well and the family was expecting him to score around 650 marks.
Former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot expressed grief over the incident and linked it to anxiety among students after reports of irregularities and paper leaks in NEET 2026.
Pilot said repeated paper leak incidents and cancellation of examinations were affecting students' mental health and demanded a time-bound investigation and strict action against those responsible.
