Coming up on November 14 is
a supermoon, the closest moon to Earth since 1948.
Here to tell us a little bit about it is Dr. Alex Young.
So what is a supermoon and what this one so super?
Well a supermoon is what happens when the moon is
within 90% closest approach as it orbits the Earth
also a full moon and this one is extra special because
it is the closest approach we've had during
a full moon since 1948.
When is the best time to see the supermoon
and will it look different from other full moons?
Well you can go out on Saturday night,
Sunday night or Monday night
and as long as there is a clear sky
when the moon is up
you're going to get to see a moon
that's 14% bigger and 30% brighter.
So it's going to give everyone a spectacular show.
Many of our viewers will be amazed to hear that NASA
has had a spacecraft orbiting over 7 years.
What's the most surprising thing you've seen?
So over the past 7 years
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)
has been orbiting the moon giving us a spectacular
view, mapping the surface,
showing it's impact craters
telling us an awful lot about
how the moon was formed and how its evolved
over time. But one of things
that's been so amazing is we've come
to find how much the moon is changing.
That is the surface is being
bombarded much more then we ever
expected over such a short period of time.
So we have seen how much the moon is changing and how dynamic
of a place it really is.
What can our moon teach us about other mysterious places
deeper in the solar system?
Studying the moon serves as a
way to compare with other objects
in the solar system.
So for example the New Horizons
mission has sent back pictures
of Pluto and what we've found
is that it's much different then
we expected. We didn't see
the impact craters that we thought we were
going to see.
Like we expect comparing it to the moon
so this is telling us that the environment
is much different
and the planet
itself is changing in
evolving that we never expected.
Where can we learn more?
Go to nasa.gov/lro
to see more about the LRO mission and
studying the moon and the solar system
and if you take pictures of the supermoon
share them on social media
with #NASAsupermoon