NASA Releases a Short "Evolution of the Moon" Video

[astrostu]

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, from which the data for MoonMappers comes, celebrates 1000 days in orbit on March 19th. NASA has released a ~3-minute "Evolution of the Moon" video that I think is pretty neat and shows how much it's been influenced by cratering: Watch me!

[kmasterdo]

Thank you for sharing this video!

[Jean Tate]

Cool!

How accurate is the 'texturing' of the molten (early) phase, and of the mares (when they were molten)? For example, the video seems to show the 'plates' (are they plates? or convection cells? something else?) are ~a few hundred km in size, and that this size does not vary much (e.g. it doesn't have a size distribution at all like that of craters). How accurate is that?

[astrostu]

I like the movie, Jean, but there are actually a fair number of inaccuracies. Think this is something that would make a good blog post (talking about some of the unknowns that are shown as known / artistic license in the movie)?

[kmasterdo]

I like the movie, Jean, but there are actually a fair number of inaccuracies. Think this is something that would make a good blog post (talking about some of the unknowns that are shown as known / artistic license in the movie)?

That would have been my next question, but now I'm looking forward to the blog post.

[astrostu]

That would have been my next question, but now I'm looking forward to the blog post.

I have a 2-hour airplane flight Sunday morning. Guess we now know what I'll be doing in the airport!

[kmasterdo]

Have you seen this video?

[astrostu]

Have you seen this video?

I have now . Orientale is a very neat basin, BTW. I've mapped chains of >20-km-diameter secondary craters from it over a quarter of the way around the moon. And the Tycho central peak close-up images are just awesome. It's actually the wallpaper on my iPod Touch. With my first-ever (new) iPad coming in <13.69 hours (no, who said I'm counting?), I'm trying to decide what NAC image to make the wallpaper on its high-res display.

I was not happy they put stars in the sky of the rendering of the volcano on the far side, though. That was really my only issue production-wise. I still get people coming to my website telling me the moon landings were fake because there are no stars in the photos. Through no ill-intent, when artists choose to put stars in the background of renderings like this, they unknowingly help perpetuate a pseudoscience.

[Jean Tate]

I like the movie, Jean, but there are actually a fair number of inaccuracies. Think this is something that would make a good blog post (talking about some of the unknowns that are shown as known / artistic license in the movie)?

Yes.

I was particularly interested in the "plates", partly because I know there are wrinkle ridges (all?) over the mares (marea?), and wondered if they might be somehow related.

One feature I thought particularly impressive is the plumes. They look very much like the volcanoes on Io, only bigger. Did the big impacts really spew debris pretty much all over the whole (ancient) Moon? And are the shapes still accurate, given that they rise so far above the surface that the local g would be quite different?

As always, the sounds bug me; even if they represent what you might hear if you could press your ear to the ground (so to speak), they're still quite wrong, aren't they?

[astrostu]

Hi all, I know this took me forever but I finally have posted a commentary on this video. Check out this blog post.

[kmasterdo]

Hi all, I know this took me forever but I finally have posted a commentary on this video. Check out this blog post.

Thank you!

[kmasterdo]

Here's a new video made of LRO images: "From the Earth to the Moon"

[Shigeru]

Here's a new video made of LRO images: "From the Earth to the Moon"

Amazing! Thanks for the link!