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Home Science News

NASA’s stunning, 4K ‘Tour of the Moon’ is just as good as visiting the place — if not better

Eye candy galore.

Alexandru Micu by Alexandru Micu
April 11, 2018
in News, Space, Videos
Reading Time: 2 mins read
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If you can’t seem to get a hold of a ticket to the Moon, fret not — NASA intends to help you see all the attractions without ever having to leave your chair.

In the fall of 2011, NASA released its original Tour of the Moon: a five-minute clip that takes viewers on a virtual tour of the Moon we know and love. The clip was created using data beamed back by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which, at the time, had spent roughly two years hiking about and studying Earth’s satellite.

It’s been six years since then, and NASA hasn’t been wasting time. The Agency has recreated the Tour in blockbuster-worthy 4k, using the same camera path, but drawing on the much-expanded pool of knowledge the LRO gathered for us since. It feels like an odd (but awesome) crossover between a vacation promo and a science documentary, moving between regular views and colorful, digitally-enhanced footage that shows off some the moon’s fascinating geologic features — all set to a symphonic soundtrack that bellows just under the voice-over.

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The tour’s ‘attractions’ were selected to illustrate as many of the lunar terrain’s features as possible. Some of them — particularly those on the near side — should be somewhat familiar to amateur and professional moon-gazers alike since this is the side visible from Earth. Others, however, can only be seen clearly from space. Some of the features seen here are massive and incredibly old, such as the Orientale, South Pole-Aitken basins. Others are both smaller and younger — for example, the craters Tycho and Aristarchus.

The constantly-shadowed areas near the poles pose obvious difficulty for photographers trying to capture a pic — so NASA measured the areas using altimetry. Landing sites closer to the equator, where there’s light aplenty, were imaged in resolutions as high as 10 inches / 25 centimeters per pixel.

The new tour also takes a look at the mineral composition of the Aristarchus plateau, follows evidence of surface water ice in some areas near the south pole, and a glimpse at the Orientale basin’s gravitational profile.

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Tags: Lunar Reconnaissance OrbiterMoonnasaTour of the Moon
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Alexandru Micu

Alexandru Micu

Stunningly charming pun connoisseur, I have been fascinated by the world around me since I first laid eyes on it. Always curious, I'm just having a little fun with some very serious science.

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