The National Space Agency (Angkasa) has refuted blog and Facebook postings which attributed its former director-general as saying that the moon will circumbulate the Kaabah while the sky will turn bright blue in Mecca early today.

Angkasa head of the Space Science Research Unit Mohd Fairos Asillam said nothing bizarre or unusual about the movement, distance, brightness and phases of the moon would happen early today.

“The moon will just cross the sky over Kaabah and will not circumbulate as claimed. As usual it will rise in the east and set in the west,” he told Bernama today.

He said a claim that the statement on the purported bizarre occurrence was issued by former Angkasa director-general Prof Dr Mazlan Othman was baseless and untrue.

Fairos said the distance between the moon and the earth early tomorrow is 404,738km.

He advised the public to check websites of credible organisations like Angkasa to avoid confusion on the matter.

The purported bizarre occurrence said to be once in 10 years that the moon will circumbulate the Kaabah at 3.25am while the sky will turn bright blue had gone viral on blogs and Facebook.

- Bernama