See How Earth's Moon Evolved in New NASA Videos

By Space.com, staff Space.com | SPACE.com – Thu, Mar 15, 2012

Two new NASA videos use the latest close-up imagery of the moon from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to reveal Earth's natural satellite in a whole new light.

One video zooms over the moon to reveal its most prominent features. Imagery from the spacecraft shows these lunar highlights in high-resolution detail, revealing deep craters, towering mountains, and even leftover equipment at the NASA's Apollo moon landing sites.

This narrated "best-of" tour of the moon includes photos of Orientale Basin, Shackleton crater, South Pole-Aitken Basin, Tycho crater, Aristarchus Plateau, Mare Serenitatis, Compton-Belkovich volcano, Jackson crater and Tsiolkovsky crater.

The second video uses Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photos to animate the history of the moon from its formation around 4.5 billion years ago through today.

Both videos were created by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt Md., in honor of the probe's 1,000th day in orbit. LRO was launched June 18, 2009, from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

The moon is thought to have been created when a large space rock slammed into Earth and broke off a chunk of our planet. This collision was so powerful it would have melted rock, leaving the moon a hot, liquid blob for its early years. As this molten magma melted over time, the lunar crust formed.

[Related: How old is the moon?]

But the moon was soon disturbed again by another huge asteroid impact. Between 4.5 and 4.3 billion years ago, scientists think a giant object crashed into the moon's south pole and created the South Pole-Aitken Basin. This feature, still visible today, is one of the two largest known impact basins in the solar system.

And that collision was not an isolated incident. The moon went through an early period of bombardment by many space rocks of varying sizes, though none were quite as gigantic as the rock responsible for the South Pole-Aitken Basin.

The video illustrates the effect of this action on the early moon. Because the moon's insides hadn't completely cooled by this point, magma would have seeped through the cracks on the moon's surface caused by these impacts.

Over time, this volcanic activity subsided as the moon further cooled and impacts became less frequent. The moon's current barren, seemingly unchanging face belies the volatility of its early life, though.

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Solar and lunar Eclipse Dates for 2012

May 20, 2012: Annular eclipse of the Sun This rare eclipse will be partially visible from all but eastern North America. For most western locations, the eclipse will begin between 5:00 P.M. and 6:00 P.M. PDT. In Alaska and parts of northern Canada, the eclipse will start an hour earlier and end 2 to 3 hours later (or will be interrupted by sunset). In San Francisco, for example, the eclipse will begin at 5:16 P.M. PDT, reach its maximum at 6:33 P.M., and end at 7:30 P.M., with the Sun very low on the horizon.

June 3-4, 2012: Partial eclipse of the Moon In North America, this will be fully visible only from western Alaska; Hawaiians will also have a view. The Moon will enter the penumbra at 10:47 P.M. HAST on June 3, reach a maximum at 1:03 A.M. on June 4, and then leave the penumbra at 3:20 A.M. The eclipse will be partially visible from most of central and western parts of North America; observers will be able to see both a penumbral and umbral eclipse. The Moon will enter the penumbra at 1:47 A.M. PDT on June 4 and then enter the umbra at 2:59 A.M. PDT. However, the Moon will set before completion of the eclipse. Only a penumbral eclipse will be visible from the Northeast, starting at 4:47 A.M. EDT on June 4, before the Moon sets.

November 13-14, 2012: Total eclipse of the Sun This eclipse will not be visible from North America. It will be visible only from Australia, Polynesia, the South Pacific Ocean, southern South America, and Antarctica.

November 28, 2012: Penumbral eclipse of the Moon This eclipse will be fully visible only from Alaska and western parts of Hawaii. The Moon will enter the penumbra at 3:13 A.M. AKST, reach a maximum at 5:33 A.M., and exit the penumbra at 7:53 A.M. In central and western North America, the eclipse will begin at 4:13 A.M. PST, but the Moon will set before the eclipse concludes. No eclipse will be visible from eastern North America.

NASA Interactive Night Sky Map