Take a few minutes to enjoy this image of the highest resolution near-global topographic map of the moon ever created and two of NASA’s most popular short videos, “Walking On Air” and “A Narrated Tour of the Moon.”
A New Map of the Moon
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter science team released the highest resolution near-global topographic map of the moon ever created. This new topographic map shows the surface shape and features over nearly the entire moon with a pixel scale close to 328 feet (100 meters).
Although the moon is Earth’s closest neighbor, knowledge of its morphology is still limited. Due to the limitations of previous missions, a global map of the moon’s topography at high resolution has not existed until now. With LRO’s Wide Angle Camera and the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter instrument, scientists can now accurately portray the shape of the entire moon at high resolution.
Walking On Air
This video features a series of time-lapse sequences photographed by the Expedition 30 crew aboard the International Space Station. Set to the song “Walking in the Air,” by Howard Blake, the video takes viewers around the world, through auroras, and over dazzling lightning displays. The sequences are as follows: :01 – Stars over southern United States 0:08 – US west coast to Canada 0:21 – Central Europe to the Middle East 0:36 – Aurora Australis over the Indian Ocean 0:54 – Storms over Africa 1:08 – Central United States 1:20 – Midwest United States 1:33 – United Kingdom to Baltic Sea 1:46 – Moonset 1:55 – Northern United States to Eastern Canada 2:12 – Aurora Australis over the Indian Ocean 2:32 – Comet Lovejoy 2:53 – Aurora Borealis over Hudson Bay 3:06 – United Kingdom to Central Europe.
A Narrated Tour of the Moon
Although the moon has remained largely unchanged during human history, our understanding of it and how it has evolved over time has evolved dramatically. Thanks to new measurements, we have new and unprecedented views of its surface, along with new insight into how it and other rocky planets in our solar system came to look the way they do. See some of the sights and learn more here!
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