Last updated April 12, 2018 at 10:28 am
See the Moon as never before thanks to data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.
This virtual tour of the Moon is a reprise of the original video released in 2011 using data from the the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission.
The near-five minute animation has now been re-released in super high definition 4K resolution drawing from the vastly expanded data trove collected by LRO since 2011.
“The tour visits a number of interesting sites chosen to illustrate a variety of lunar terrain features,” NASA writes.
“Some are on the near side and are familiar to both professional and amateur observers on Earth, while others can only be seen clearly from space.
“Some are large and old (Orientale, South Pole-Aitken), others are smaller and younger (Tycho, Aristarchus).
“Constantly shadowed areas near the poles are hard to photograph but easier to measure with altimetry, while several of the Apollo landing sites, all relatively near the equator, have been imaged at resolutions as high as 25 centimeters (10 inches) per pixel.”
The new tour highlights the mineral composition of the Aristarchus plateau, evidence for surface water ice in certain spots near the south pole, and the mapping of gravity in and around the Orientale basin.
Visualisation Credits
David Ladd (USRA): Lead Producer
David Ladd (USRA): Lead Video Editor
Noah Petro (NASA/GSFC): Lead Scientist
