WEBVTT FILE

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.790
silence

2
00:00:10.810 --> 00:00:12.530
music

3
00:00:12.550 --> 00:00:17.690
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's wide angle camera, or WAC, is creating a photographic atlas of the entire moon.

4
00:00:17.710 --> 00:00:20.260
By stitching together thousands of separate images

5
00:00:20.280 --> 00:00:24.000
scientists can create a global catalog of the mountains, craters, and rilles,

6
00:00:24.020 --> 00:00:28.050
like those seen here, near the landing site of Apollo 15.

7
00:00:28.070 --> 00:00:31.480
Color and contrast in WAC images give us clues about the chemical makeup of the lunar soil.

8
00:00:31.500 --> 00:00:35.480
The sharp border between the Seas of Serenity and Tranquility, for example, is probably

9
00:00:35.500 --> 00:00:39.260
caused by differing amounts of titanium.

10
00:00:39.280 --> 00:00:43.650
Crater shapes reveal their ages. These three craters are like a time-lapse photo,

11
00:00:43.670 --> 00:00:51.070
from the youngest at the top, with sharp, well-defined features, to the oldest at the bottom, nearly erased by time.

12
00:00:51.090 --> 00:00:56.380
With the wide angle images from LRO, we can improve our understanding of our nearest neighbor in the solar system.

13
00:00:56.400 --> 00:01:05.209
music

14
00:01:05.230 --> 00:01:17.670
beeping