January 30 - 2010 First Full Moon

2010 First Full Moon - Tonight's first full Moon will be the biggest and brightest of the year since it coincides with the annual perigee (the Moon's closest point to Earth for the year).

Wolf Moon - Native Americans called the January full Moon the Wolf Moon. During the cold and snows of mid-winter, wolf packs would howl hungrily around their villages at night.

January 21 - Snow Belt

Snow Belt - Snowstorms near large lakes and oceans are called lake-effect snows.

Cold air blows over a warm body of water, creating energy and picking up water vapor, which condenses and falls as snow downwind of the lake or ocean as a snow belt.

January 7 - Walrus

Vaulted Palate - Walruses feed on many marine organisms, but their favorite food is the benthic bivalve mollusk. Their uniquely vaulted palate allows the walruses to seal the mollusks in their powerful lips, draw in their tongues rapidly which creates a vacuum to extract the meat.

Flotation Bubbles - Walruses can sleep while bobbing vertically in the water because the air sacs under their throats act as flotation devices that keep their heads above water so that they can breathe while remaining partially submerged.

January 3 - Perihelion

Perihelion - On January 3, 2010 around midnight, Earth reaches its closest orbital point to the Sun for this year. Earth is about 3.1 million miles closer to the Sun at Perihelion than when it is at its farthest point (aphelion) in July.