1 00:00:00,010 --> 00:00:04,030 >>Interviewer: The full moon on August 10th isn't like other full moons we've seen this year. 2 00:00:04,050 --> 00:00:08,050 This is a "supermoon," and here to tell us more about it 3 00:00:08,070 --> 00:00:12,090 is NASA scientist Dr. Michelle Thaller. Thank you for joining us, Michelle. 4 00:00:12,110 --> 00:00:16,100 >>MIchelle: Hey, great to be here, thank you. >>Interviewer: So tell us, what is a supermoon, 5 00:00:16,120 --> 00:00:20,100 and what makes this full moon special? >>Michelle: Well a supermoon simply 6 00:00:20,120 --> 00:00:24,280 defined is the largest and brightest moon of the year, and that's what's going to be happening this Sunday. 7 00:00:24,300 --> 00:00:28,280 Now, the reason this happens at all is as the Moon orbits around the 8 00:00:28,300 --> 00:00:32,470 Earth, it doesn't orbit in a perfect circle. Sometimes it's a little farther away, that we call 9 00:00:32,490 --> 00:00:36,470 the "apogee." And other times, it swings in a little bit closer to Earth, 10 00:00:36,490 --> 00:00:40,570 and we call that the "perigee." And if you get a full moon near perigee, that means 11 00:00:40,590 --> 00:00:44,600 the Moon looks bigger and brighter. And here's a comparison of 12 00:00:44,620 --> 00:00:48,610 a small full moon for the year, and the one we're having on Sunday is about 14% 13 00:00:48,630 --> 00:00:52,670 bigger, which amazingly makes it 30% brighter, a third brighter, 14 00:00:52,690 --> 00:00:56,720 so you will see a lovely, large, bright full moon rising on Sunday. 15 00:00:56,740 --> 00:01:00,740 >>Interviewer: When is the best time to view the supermoon, is it 16 00:01:00,760 --> 00:01:04,920 going to look different from other full moons? >>Michelle: Well because it's 17 00:01:04,940 --> 00:01:08,940 closer, in fact it's 31,000 miles closer, it is going to appear larger 18 00:01:08,960 --> 00:01:13,130 and brighter. But the nice thing about the Moon is you can see it anywhere that you happen to have a 19 00:01:13,150 --> 00:01:17,140 clear sky during the night. So I usually like to go out around sunset, because 20 00:01:17,160 --> 00:01:21,150 that's when the full moon rises. And look at the eastern horizon, and watch the Moon come up 21 00:01:21,170 --> 00:01:25,160 and whenever you see the Moon close to the horizon, it looks even larger than normal, 22 00:01:25,180 --> 00:01:29,170 it looks even more spectacular. But the Moon will be up all weekend long, 23 00:01:29,190 --> 00:01:33,170 you know whether it's Friday evening, all the way through to Sunday, go outside and look at the Moon, 24 00:01:33,190 --> 00:01:37,180 and appreciate the brightest, most spectacular full moon of the year. 25 00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:41,180 >>Interviewer: Well NASA has had a spacecraft orbiting the Moon for five years, 26 00:01:41,200 --> 00:01:45,180 called the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. What are some of the cool things 27 00:01:45,200 --> 00:01:49,360 we've learned from this mission? >>Michelle: Well that's right, when you look at the Moon this weekend, 28 00:01:49,380 --> 00:01:53,380 picture this spacecraft actually orbiting around it right now. And that's LRO, the 29 00:01:53,400 --> 00:01:57,390 Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. And LRO is actually making the Moon the most 30 00:01:57,410 --> 00:02:01,390 well-studied object in the solar system. The temperature for example, we're finding the 31 00:02:01,410 --> 00:02:05,390 coldest temperature in the solar system. We see craters. Here's a 32 00:02:05,410 --> 00:02:09,400 beautiful mountain that's actually inside a large crater called "Tycho," and it sorta looks like 33 00:02:09,420 --> 00:02:13,410 there's a little rock on top of that mountain. But that little boulder that you see 34 00:02:13,430 --> 00:02:17,420 is lit up by the Sun. The scale is very misleading. That is actually the size of a large 35 00:02:17,440 --> 00:02:21,420 football stadium. So there are dramatic terrains on the Moon that we still 36 00:02:21,440 --> 00:02:25,430 have to study. And of course the wonderful thing about the Moon is it's a pristine 37 00:02:25,450 --> 00:02:29,440 sample of the formation of the solar system. Billions of years ago, 38 00:02:29,460 --> 00:02:33,520 many smaller objects collided together to form the Moon. And we 39 00:02:33,540 --> 00:02:37,530 see a record of the cratering that's been left unchanged for billions of years. 40 00:02:37,550 --> 00:02:41,530 Here you see an animation, it first started with some very large bodies 41 00:02:41,550 --> 00:02:45,600 coming together, very big craters are formed. Over time, 42 00:02:45,620 --> 00:02:49,780 it was smaller objects that left records on the Moon. We still see the occasional crater forming, 43 00:02:49,800 --> 00:02:53,790 even today, and while most of those craters have been erased on the surface of the Earth, 44 00:02:53,810 --> 00:02:57,980 because of our atmosphere, oceans, weather, all those things, 45 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:02,060 on the Moon we actually have a sample of what formed the solar system billions 46 00:03:02,080 --> 00:03:06,240 of years ago. >>Interviewer: It's been 45 years 47 00:03:06,260 --> 00:03:10,430 since NASA put a man on the Moon. What have we learned about our closest neighbor 48 00:03:10,450 --> 00:03:14,430 since then? >>Michelle: It's wonderful that we can actually use LRO 49 00:03:14,450 --> 00:03:18,440 to even look back at the Moon and think about the history that NASA has there. It's been 45 50 00:03:18,460 --> 00:03:22,440 years since people landed on the Moon. And I love to think that, you know, 51 00:03:22,460 --> 00:03:26,450 hey we used to have a car that was actually driving around on the surface of another world. 52 00:03:26,470 --> 00:03:30,450 And you can still see the landing sites using LRO. Those little dark 53 00:03:30,470 --> 00:03:34,530 tracks that you see through the lunar soil, those are the footprints of the astronauts. 54 00:03:34,550 --> 00:03:38,540 We can see the actual descent stages, we can actually see the lunar modules 55 00:03:38,560 --> 00:03:42,690 down there. And as a matter of fact, we know that the American flags are still flying 56 00:03:42,710 --> 00:03:46,700 on the Moon 45 years later. >>Interviewer: Sounds great, 57 00:03:46,720 --> 00:03:50,700 where can we go to learn more? >>Michelle: Well to learn more about all of our 58 00:03:50,720 --> 00:03:54,720 studies using LRO, the history of the Moon, go to NASA.gov/LRO. 59 00:03:54,740 --> 00:03:58,910 And you can see some of the beautiful images that 60 00:03:58,930 --> 00:04:02,910 we're returning, and I really encourage you to go there and learn everything you can 61 00:04:02,930 --> 00:04:06,920 about the Moon. >>Interviewer: Thank you very much for joining us Michelle. >>Michelle: Great to 62 00:04:06,940 --> 00:04:08,612 be here. Thank you.