As 1000 days in orbit of the NASA lunar reconnaissance orbiter (LRO) have passed two new videos have been released.
The first video takes us through the moons evolutionary history and shows how it came to appear the way it does today.
The second video gives a guided tour of some prominent locations on the moon’s surface compiled by the spacecrafts own images.
Apollo
The moon probably started as a giant ball of magma formed from the remains of a collision by an object of the Earth about 4 1/2 billion years ago. When the magma cooled the moon’s crust formed. Then after this about 4.4 billion years ago a large object hit close to the South Pole of the moon. After this some large scale changes to the moon’s surface occurred such as the formation of large basins.
The moon had not entirely cooled on the inside and therefore magma began to seep through cracks caused by impacts. The volcanic activity is thought to have ended then on the near side of the moon. Smaller impacts then continued to impact the moon .
Atlas V launch
The second video shows a few interesting places on the moon. There is a journey across the moon’s surface in a fully narrated video as well as a few clips from each of the stops on the tour.
The lunar reconnaissance orbiter launched on board an atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral on June 18, 2009. It is currently orbiting the moon taking lots of nice high resolution pictures.
Both videos are combined in the video below.
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