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Coming up on November 14 is

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a supermoon, the closest moon to Earth since 1948.

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Here to tell us a little bit about it is Dr. Alex Young.

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So what is a supermoon and what this one so super?

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Well a supermoon is what happens when the moon is

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within 90% closest approach as it orbits the Earth

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also a full moon and this one is extra special because

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it is the closest approach we've had during

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a full moon since 1948.

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When is the best time to see the supermoon

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and will it look different from other full moons?

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Well you can go out on Saturday night,

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Sunday night or Monday night

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and as long as there is a clear sky

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when the moon is up

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you're going to get to see a moon

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that's 14% bigger and 30% brighter.

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So it's going to give everyone a spectacular show.

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Many of our viewers will be amazed to hear that NASA

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has had a spacecraft orbiting over 7 years.

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What's the most surprising thing you've seen?

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So over the past 7 years

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NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)

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has been orbiting the moon giving us a spectacular

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view, mapping the surface,

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showing it's impact craters

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telling us an awful lot about

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how the moon was formed and how its evolved

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over time.  But one of things

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that's been so amazing is we've come

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to find how much the moon is changing.

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That is the surface is being

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bombarded much more then we ever

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expected over such a short period of time.

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So we have seen how much the moon is changing and how dynamic

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of a place it really is.

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What can our moon teach us about other mysterious places

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deeper in the solar system?

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Studying the moon serves as a

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way to compare with other objects

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in the solar system.

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So for example the New Horizons

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mission has sent back pictures

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of Pluto and what we've found

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is that it's much different then

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we expected.  We didn't see

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the impact craters that we thought we were

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going to see.

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Like we expect comparing it to the moon

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so this is telling us that the environment

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is much different

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and the planet

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itself is changing in

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evolving that we never expected.

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Where can we learn more?

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Go to nasa.gov/lro

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to see more about the LRO mission and

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studying the moon and the solar system

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and if you take pictures of the supermoon

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share them on social media

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with #NASAsupermoon

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