NASA Captures a Captivating Video of the Moon
Moon has some outstanding scenes for all the viewers out there and NASA has compiled them artistically.
The relationship of humanity with the Moon is a long-lasting one which began on 4th January 1959 when Luna 1 flew past it. The next massive development came to the scenes on 13th September 1959 as Luna 2 became the first spacecraft to hit the lunar surface. The first close-up pictures of the Moon were revealed on 31st July 1964 through the Ranger 7 of NASA. Luna 9 provided the first-ever images from the surface of the Moon after completing a soft landing on 3rd February 1966. Similarly, Surveyor 1 was the first NASA mission which touched the surface of the Moon. After that, the Apollo Missions took over and ultimately led us to a human exploration of our Moon.
Recently, NASA made a video tour of the moon by making use of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). It had a lot of breathtaking views in it which were appreciated by the scientific community around the world. Ernie Wright, a Science Visualizer at the NASA, compiled this amazing video. It was first shown to the world in a concert named ‘NSO Pops: Space, the Next Frontier’ at the Kennedy Center in Washington on the 1st and 2nd of June. The National Symphony Orchestra Pops provided exceptional audio support to these visuals. Even Wright acknowledged that by saying,
“Clair de Lune,” which means “moonlight” in French, offered the perfect backdrop for the video, because it is “melancholy, solitary and contemplative, as if you’re alone, walking through a garden in the moonlight.”
The official release of this video, on YouTube, was scheduled to coincide with the 49th Anniversary of the Apollo Moon Landing, which happened on 20th July 1969. In addition to that, it was also a tribute to the NASA for completing 60 years of outstanding service.
The orbiter (LRO) used for the making of this video keeps a track of the lunar terrain and collects relevant data which is then used to create a topographic map of the moon. Alongside this information, Wright took help from a 3D Visualization Software and some other images of the celestial body. There are quite a lot of fascinating views in this video including the peaks of the Caucasus and Apennine ranges, Copernicus Crater, and the Aristarchus Plateau. The rising of the Sun brings a lot of details, like the narrow grooves, on the lunar surface out of the shadows. Wright referred to that and said,
“The thing about the moon is that the shadows are everything. If you don’t do that well, you’ve pretty much lost the game — there aren’t vibrant colors like on the Earth or Jupiter or Saturn.”
Click the following link to enjoy all the amazing scenes for yourself.
Computer Scientist by qualification who loves to read, write, eat, and travel