Coming up on Monday November 14th is a Supermoon, the closest moon
to Earth since 1948 and till
2034. So tell us what is a Supermoon and what makes this one
so super? (Castro) A supermoon occurs when we have a full moon that
that coincides with the moon being at it's perigee which is its closest point
and it's elliptical orbit in relations to the Earth. This is what's going to allows us
to see a bigger and brighter moon on November 14th. We haven't had this type
of supermoon since 1948 and we won't get that chance again until
2034. (reporter) When is the best time
to see the supermoon and will it look different than other full moons.
(Castro) As long as we have clear skies, you'll be able to see the supermoon leading up to
November 14th, throughout the weekend till about two to three days, you can see a bigger
about 14% and 30% brighter moon.
(reporter) Many of our viewers will be amazed to hear
that NASA has had a spacecraft orbiting the moon for over 7 years. What's
the most surprising thing you've seen. (Castro) So the Lunar Reconnaissance
Orbiter is a beautiful piece of technology, we've been able to get great
great imaging and exquisite mapping of the moon
which helps us realize that it's actually changing at a lot quicker rate
than we initially thought. So, it's constantly being bombarded
objects in outer space and one of the things we realized is that the Apollo
foot prints that were left behind by the astronauts might actually be gone in
tens of thousands of years instead of the millions that we originally thought.
(reporter) What can our moon teach us other mysterious places deeper in the solar
system? (Castro) We know the moon really well, we've been to the moon
we're still mapping daily, we're imagining it daily, so we are able to
use it as a reference point to other planetary objects, so for example
when we got images back from the New Horizons mission of
the planet Pluto, we're able to see that has a less cratered surface than
compared to the moon. So we are deduce that perhaps Pluto's bombardment
is a lot different than that we see on the moon
and maybe even a younger body. (reporter) Where can we learn more?
(Castro) You can learn more at NASA.gov/lro and
we encourage that you share your pictures with us at #NASAsupermoon
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