Zooming in on a Blue Moon
August 30, 2012
According to modern folklore, a “blue moon” is the second full moon in a calendar month. On Friday, August 31, people all around the world will have the opportunity to look at the skies and marvel at the blue moon. To coincide with this special lunar event, a new video entitled From the Earth to the Moon is being released to showcase our Moon with scenes so dramatic you may find yourself reaching out to pick up a rock and becoming restless for a chance to walk among the lunar peaks.
This fresh look at the Moon is produced from an integrated set of lunar images and topographical data obtained by the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), in particular, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) and Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) teams.
From the Earth to the Moon is a brief but vivid video and audio recording that
- provides an inspirational view of the lunar surface, which humans have not visited since 1972, despite being the best and most accessible place in the solar system to explore the fundamental principles of our origins;
- highlights vast portions of the lunar surface that have yet to be explored; and
- demonstrates how new images are revealing dramatic details of future landing sites suitable for both robotic and human missions.
Future missions to the Moon are needed to investigate the earliest processes associated with the formation of the Earth-Moon system, the evolution of the Moon through a period with a planet-wide magma ocean, and a subsequent period of intense bombardment that repeatedly modified the surfaces of the Earth, Moon, and all other inner solar system planets. The details of that bombardment and its effect on the origin and evolution of life on Earth are waiting to be discovered on the lunar surface. If we are going to explore space, let us reach for the Moon and beyond.
The HD video is available for free download in iPhone, Quicktime, and Windows formats.
To download the video, visit
For more information, visit
Center for Lunar Science and Exploration
Last updated August 30, 2012
