>>Interviewer: Well the full moon on August 10th isn't like other full moons we've seen this
year. This is a "supermoon," and here to tell us more about it
is NASA scientist Dr. Noah Petro. Thank you for joining us, Noah.
>>Noah: Well thank you for having me. >>Interviewer: So what is a "supermoon" and what makes
this full moon special? >>Noah: So the supermoon is the closest
largest full moon of the calendar year. It's a real treat to see the Moon
in a unique way. Because the Moon's orbit around the Earth is not a perfect
circle, it gets farther away of the course of the year, when it's farthest away it's known as
"apogee," and when it's closest it's known as "perigee," so over the weekend we're going to have a perigee
full moon, the closest full moon of the year. Because it's close, it's going to appear about
14% larger, about 30% brighter than the
smallest full moon of the year. So ti's going to be larger and brighter than your average full moon.
So it should be a really great show. >>Interviewer: When is the best time to view the
supermoon, and will it look different from other full moons? >>Noah: The best time to see
the supermoon is any time at night, go out and look at the sky. The supermoon will be up after
sunset. Watch it when it rises to the east, and
you should have a great view of a beautiful full moon in the sky.
>>Interviewer: NASA has had a spacecraft orbiting the Moon for five
years called the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. What are some of the cool
things we're learning from this mission? >>Noah: Yes, so LRO has been at the Moon
for five years, and in that time we've completely re-written our understanding of the lunar surface.
We have produced the highest resolution of topographic
map of any planetary body in the solar system, including the Earth,
we've had higher resolution images and data products to tell us about impact craters change
the surface. And we get these wonderful vistas, these wonderful views of the lunar surface
including the beautiful central peak of the Tycho Crater and that beautiful boulder
perched on top. >>Narrator: What has the origin of the Moon
taught us about our solar system? >>Noah: One of the things that we've learned
about the early history of the Moon and it's early development
is that it was a very violent time. There were lots of large impact craters
forming very rapidly in the earliest history of the Moon about 4 and a half billion years ago.
Because the Moon is so close to the Earth, we know that those same events
must have been happening also on the Earth. So we're learning about the early history of all
planetary bodies in the solar system by studying the earliest history of the Moon.
It's a really wonderful opportunity to learn about fundamental processes across the solar
system. >>Interviewer: Well it's been 45 years
since NASA put a man on the Moon. So what have learned about our closest neighbor
since then? >>Noah: Well the wonderful thing in the 45 years since
the Apollo missions to the Moon is that we have these awesome rocks
that the astronauts brought back. And now combined with the data from LRO,
we can put those rocks, those samples into context of the entire Moon. So for instance,
the samples that the astronauts brought back tell us that there are some volatiles
inside the Moon. Of course the wonderful high-resolution images of the
LROC camera on LRO show us where the astronauts actually walked, so we can put those
samples they brought back into a context of the landing site, places they went,
and of course look at the beautiful places that they explored 45 years ago.
>>Interviewer: Sounds great, where can we go to learn more? >>Noah: Well the best place to start
to learn more about the Moon and the LRO mission is NASA.gov/LRO
and from there you can learn about each of the instruments, join us on social media,
and learn more about this wonderful mission. >>Interviewer: Dr. Noah
Petro, thank you very much! >>Noah: Well thank you for having me.