LRO and Solar Eclipse Events

"The Moon and More" - a music video starring musicians Javier Colon and Matt Cusson.Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel. || "The Moon and More" is a music video featuring musicians Javier Colon (Season 1 winner of NBC's "The Voice"), and Matt Cusson in collaboration with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission. || For More Information || See [http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/lro-presents-the-moon-and-more](http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/lro-presents-the-moon-and-more) ||

This video explains how our moon creates a solar eclipse, why it's such a rare event to see, and how data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has enhanced our ability to map an eclipse's path of totality.Music Provided by Universal Production Music: “Bring Me Up” – Anders Gunnar Kampe & Henrik Lars Wikstrom.Watch this video on the NASA.gov Video YouTube channel. || While the sun is the main focus of a solar eclipse, our moon plays the most crucial role in creating this unique event. This video tutorial explains what happens during a total solar eclipse and a partial eclipse and how often they both occur. The video also explains how a solar eclipse differs from a lunar eclipse, and gives a helpful tip on how to remember the difference. In addition, the video examines how the two parts of the moon’s shadow, the umbra and penumbra, affect how we see an eclipse on the Earth, and illustrates the surprising true shape of the umbra. The video concludes by highlighting how data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has helped us better map a solar eclipse’s path of totality. Visualizations included in this piece showcase the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse happening in the United States. ||

Music: Witch Waltz by Dorian KellyComplete transcript available.Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel. || Why are eclipses rare? The moon's orbit is tilted. Sometimes the moon's shadow is too high above the Earth. Sometimes it is too low. Other times, it is just right. || Animation without text ||

Music credit: Ascending Lanterns by Philip HochstrateWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available. || On Monday, August 21, 2017, our nation will be treated to a total eclipse of the sun.The eclipse will be visible -- weather permitting -- across all of North America. The whole continent will experience a partial eclipse lasting two to three hours. Halfway through the event, anyone within a 60 to 70 mile-wide path from Oregon to South Carolina will experience a total eclipse. During those brief moments when the moon completely blocks the sun’s bright face for 2 + minutes, day will turn into night, making visible the otherwise hidden solar corona, the sun’s outer atmosphere. Bright stars and planets will become visible as well. This is truly one of nature’s most awesome sights.The eclipse provides a unique opportunity to study the sun, Earth, moon and their interaction because of the eclipse’s long path over land coast to coast. Scientists will be able to take ground-based and airborne observations over a period of an hour and a half to complement the wealth of data provided by NASA assets.Learn more at https://eclipse2017.nasa.govFind more videos about the solar ecilpse on the Sun Eclipse 2017 gallery page. ||

When depicting an eclipse path, data visualizers have usually chosen to represent the moon's shadow as an oval. By bringing in a variety of NASA data sets, visualizer Ernie Wright has created a new and more accurate representation of the eclipse. For the first time, we are able to see that the moon's shadow is better represented as a polygon. This more complicated shape is based NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's view of the mountains and valleys that form the moon's jagged edge. By combining moon's terrain, heights of land forms on Earth, and the angle of the sun, Wright is able to show the eclipse path with the greatest accuracy to date. ||

Music Credit: Chic to Chic by Piero PiccioniWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available. || Get ready to view the solar eclipse with these helpful safety tips. No one should ever look directly at the sun, even during an eclipse. Many options for indirect viewing are outlined in this video.A solar eclipse occurs when the moon blocks any part of the sun. On Monday, August 21, 2017, a solar eclipse will be visible (weather permitting) across all of North America. The whole continent will experience a partial eclipse lasting 2 to 3 hours. Halfway through the event, anyone within a roughly 70-mile-wide path from Oregon to South Carolina will experience a brief total eclipse, when the moon completely blocks the sun’s bright face for up to 2 minutes 40 seconds, turning day into night and making visible the otherwise hidden solar corona — the sun’s outer atmosphere — one of nature’s most awesome sights. Bright stars and planets will become visible as well.Learn more at https://eclipse2017.nasa.govFind more videos about the solar ecilpse on the Sun Eclipse 2017 Gallery page. ||

It is never safe to look directly at the sun's rays – even if the sun is partly obscured. When watching a partial eclipse you must wear eclipse glasses at all times if you want to face the sun, or use an alternate indirect method. This also applies during a total eclipse up until the time when the sun is completely and totally blocked.During the short time when the moon completely obscures the sun – known as the period of totality – it is safe to look directly at the star, but it's crucial that you know when to take off and put back on your glasses.First and foremost: Check for local information on timing of when the total eclipse will begin and end. NASA's page of eclipse times is a good place to start. Second: The sun also provides important clues for when totality is about to start and end.Learn more at https://eclipse2017.nasa.govFind more videos about the solar ecilpse on the Sun Eclipse 2017 gallery page. ||

Music credit: Apple of My Eye by Frederik WiedmannWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available. || You don't necessarily need fancy equipment to watch one of the sky's most awesome shows: a solar eclipse. With just a few simple supplies, you can make a pinhole camera that allows you to view the event safely and easily. Before you get started, remember: You should never look at the sun directly without equipment that's specifically designed for solar viewing. Do not use standard binoculars or telescopes to watch the eclipse, as the light could severely damage your eyes. Sunglasses also do NOT count as protection when attempting to look directly at the sun. Stay safe and still enjoy the sun's stellar shows by creating your very own pinhole camera. It's easy!See another pinhole camera tutorial at https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/learn/project/how-to-make-a-pinhole-camera/A pinhole camera is just one of many viewing options. Learn more at https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/safetyFind more videos about the solar ecilpse on the Sun Eclipse 2017 gallery page. ||

The camera zooms from an overhead, global view centered on the northern rim of Prinz crater, at 26.3°N 43.7°W, down to an oblique, close-up view of Vera crater and the associated rille, Rima Prinz. Narrated by NASA Goddard planetary geologist Debra Hurwitz Needham. || Rima Prinz is a channel (a lunar sinuous rille) carved by lava flow. It lies just north of Prinz crater, about 100 km east of the Aristarchus Plateau in Oceanus Procellarum. The source of the lava is a volcanic depression named Vera. Together they create the appearance of a snake with its head near the rim of Prinz crater and its body stretching some 75 km, first to the west and then turning sharply north.Vera may have formed as a lava lake fed by multiple eruptions of a fire fountain volcano, similar to Mauna Ulu in Hawaii, but vastly larger. Rima Prinz is a hundred times deeper and ten times longer than similar channels on Earth.The visualization uses Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) imagery at multiple resolutions to show both small details and global context. It also uses a combination of elevation datasets derived from both LROC narrow-angle camera images and laser altimetry (LOLA). More information about the LROC datasets can be found here. The narrated videos are available in both English and Spanish. ||

Beginning with a full-globe view of the lunar near side, the camera flies to a close-up, increasingly oblique view of the lunar swirl called Reiner Gamma. Narrated by LRO Deputy Project Scientist Noah Petro. Music provided by Killer Tracks: Facing the Truth — TV Mix by Eric Chevalier. || Lunar swirls are bright, often sinuous features with the diffuse appearance of abstract airbrush paintings. They are unique to the Moon and have long defied easy explanation. Five papers recently published in Icarus (1, 2, 3), JGR: Space Physics (4), and JGR: Planets (5) use a combination of computer modeling and the data gathered by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and other recent lunar missions to shed new light on the origin of these unusual surface decorations.Reiner Gamma, a bright patch amid the otherwise dark Oceanus Procellarum mare, is perhaps the most spectacular example of a lunar swirl. Through backyard telescopes near full Moon, it looks like a small figure-8 on its side. LRO's view from orbit reveals tendrils and daughter swirls that extend for several hundred kilometers.The animation zooms up on an LRO wide-angle camera mosaic of Reiner Gamma, then tilts the view to show that this large swirl is entirely two-dimensional — it's not a mountain range or a valley, but instead looks painted onto the surface. The narrated videos are available in both English and Spanish. ||

A view of the south pole of the Moon showing where reflectance and temperature data indicate the possible presence of surface water ice. Includes music and narration. Music by Killer Tracks: Full Charge - Zubin Thakkar. || Scientists studying data from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) have found evidence of surface frost near the poles on the Moon. Elizabeth Fisher, Paul Lucey, and their colleagues combined temperature data from LRO's Diviner instrument with reflectance from its laser altimeter (LOLA) to find places that are cold enough and shiny enough to indicate the possible presence of surface water ice. Their results appear in the August, 2017 issue of the journal Icarus. ||

Although the moon has remained largely unchanged during human history, our understanding of it and how it has evolved over time has evolved dramatically. Thanks to new measurements, we have new and unprecedented views of its surface, along with new insight into how it and other rocky planets in our solar system came to look the way they do. See some of the sights and learn more about the moon here! || See the narrated tour of the moon here!For complete transcript, click here.This video is also available on our YouTube channel. ||

GIF of animated sun with corona and solar wind labels. || For the first time, using NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, or STEREO, scientists have imaged the edge of the sun and described that transition – from which the solar wind blows. Defining the details of this boundary helps us learn more about our solar neighborhood, which is bathed throughout by solar material – a space environment that we must understand to safely explore beyond our planet. A paper on the findings was published in The Astrophysical Journal on Sept. 1, 2016. ||

This video explains how NASA operates the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft around the Moon.For complete transcript, click here.Watch this video on the NASAexplorer YouTube channel. || For More Information || See [http://lunar.gsfc.nasa.gov/](http://lunar.gsfc.nasa.gov/) ||

New imagery from the Hubble Space Telescope is revealing details never before seen on Jupiter. Hubble’s new Jupiter maps were used to create this Ultra HD animation.Watch this video on the NASA Explorer YouTube channel. || These new maps and spinning globes of Jupiter were made from observations performed with NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. They are the first products to come from a program to study the solar system’s outer planets – Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and, later, Saturn – each year using Hubble. The observations are designed to capture a broad range of features, including winds, clouds, storms and atmospheric chemistry. These annual studies will help current and future scientists see how these giant worlds change over time. Scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the University of California at Berkeley produced two global maps of Jupiter from the observations, which were made using Hubble’s high-performance Wide Field Camera 3.The two maps represent nearly back-to-back rotations of the planet, making it possible to determine the speeds of Jupiter’s winds. Already, the images have revealed a rare wave just north of the planet’s equator and a unique filament-like feature in the core of the Great Red Spot that had not been seen previously.In addition, the new images confirm that the Great Red Spot continues to shrink and become more circular, as it has been doing for years. The long axis of this characteristic storm is about 150 miles (240 kilometers) shorter now than it was in 2014. Recently, the storm had been shrinking at a faster-than-usual rate, but the latest change is consistent with the long-term trend. ||