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(off screen) “So joining us now from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center is Dr. Michelle Thaller.

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Thanks for joining us.” (Thaller) “Thank you, great to be here.’ (off screen) “So tell us what exactly is a

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supermoon and will it affect Earth?” (Thaller) “Well a supermoon happens when you

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get a full moon near a perigee. And perigees are a word for the closest

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approach the moon makes to the Earth every month. Apogee is the farthest away.

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You see the moon’s orbit is not a perfect circle. It’s actually a little elliptical. Sometimes

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it’s a little farther away. Sometimes it’s a little closer. And that means that the size of the moon

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seems to change in the sky. And when you get a full moon that happens when

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the moon is very close, that’s called a supermoon. Now as far as the affects

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on the Earth…nothing very direct. The actual size of the moon in the sky doesn’t change

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very much. It’s only about 12 percent larger than an average full moon.

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And as you may know, the highest tides of the month happen at

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full moon and new moon. These are called the spring tides of each month.

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And because the moon is a little closer than normal, that means the tides will be a little bit higher

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than normal as well. But we’re talking about a change of less than an inch.

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So one of the challenges about measuring what they call the perigean tide,

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the high tides associated with a supermoon, is even measuring it at

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all. It’s a fun thing to actually detect. It’s not something that you can easily see.

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(off screen) “So what is the best time to view the supermoon and will it look different

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from other full moons?” (Thaller) “Well to me the best time to view

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any full moon is right at sunset because that’s when it rises. And when you see the

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moon with respect to the horizon with buildings and trees or whatever

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it just seems to look so much more spectacular. It looks larger. In reality

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the size changes not that much. The moon at perigee or closest is just

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a little bit larger than the moon when its farther away. Um there really

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isn’t a best time at night to view this. Kind of a trivia that the actual moment

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of supermoon when it’s both closest and the most full is going

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to be at 7:30 a.m. this Sunday. But that’s actually after the moon has set.

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So I would say anytime on Saturday night, go out and look at this beautiful big,

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bright, full moon. My personal favorite time is right after sunset.

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(off screen) “NASA has a major observatory in orbit around the moon right

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now call the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. What are some of the cool things you’re seeing.”

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(Thaller) “Well yeah so we actually have an observatory orbiting the moon right now.

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And we are returning spectacular high-resolution images of the entire

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lunar surface. We can see all the Apollo landing sites, the footprints of the

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astronauts. The poles of the moon are fascinating places.

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There are actually craters both at the north and south pole of the moon where the sun never

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shines. You never get any sunlight at all. And of course those are very difficult to image.

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. But we’re actually bouncing lasers down to the moon. We’re studying the topography

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of these craters. And there’s evidence that there may be ice actually frozen

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into the soil in these permanently shadowed craters. So there may be more

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water on the moon, frozen water, than we suspected. So LRO is telling

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us so much about how the moon came to be, how it changes over time.

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We’ve recorded the coldest temperature in the entire solar system with LRO in one of these

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permanently shadowed craters. It’s about 23 Celsius above absolute

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zero, which is actually much colder than 400 degrees

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below zero Fahrenheit. So just a fascinating place and we’re finding out

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new things all the time. There’s so much more to learn about this familiar object

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in the sky. (off screen) “I understand that LRO has taken some really incredible

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images. Can you talk about some of those?” (Thaller) “Well I know that certainly some of my

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favorite images are of the Apollo landing sites. In some cases you can actually see the American

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flag still up. I’m also a particular fan of

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the central mountain peak inside Tycho Crater. You can see this gorgeous mountain

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right inside the crater. There are boulders on it that are as big as baseball stadiums.

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And I just love the variation of the lunar

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terrain. There are dark lava plains that are relatively smooth.

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There are high regions where it’s very rocky and bouldery. It tells us

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about the evolution of the solar system. You can actually see the scars left by

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huge impacts. Here again we have that gorgeous mountain inside Tycho Crater.

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That one boulder you see in the middle is the size of an entire

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football stadium. It’s incredibly huge. The moon is a

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relic of a more exciting and more violent time in our solar system’s

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formation when the planets were coming together. Lots of things were colliding.

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We think the moon may have been created during a super collision where the

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Earth was actually hit by something the size of a planet. So the moon is

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so serene and we see it, it’s so familiar to us. It’s also

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dramatic and violent and the stories associated with it

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just really fire my imagination.” (off screen) “So tell us, where

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can we learn more about the moon.” (Thaller) “Well I would say if you want to go through some of the

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best images NASA has of the moon, go to the LRO website. That would be

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NASA.GOV/LRO for Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

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Look at the Apollo landing sites. Look at the giant mountains on the moon. Have fun

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fun exploring your closest neighbor in space.