“A New Moon Rises” Opens at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum Friday

Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University

From an email:

“The National Air and Space Museum will open its newest exhibition, “A New Moon Rises: New Views from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera,” Feb. 26, displaying dramatic landscapes of the moon captured by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC). The images showcase everything from Apollo landing sites to majestic mountains that rise out of the darkness of the lunar poles. The exhibition will be open through December at the museum in Washington, D.C.

The 61 large prints in the exhibition reveal a celestial neighbor that is surprisingly dynamic and full of grandeur and wonder. The more than a million images from LROC are reshaping scientists’ understanding of the moon. They reveal newly formed impact craters, recent volcanic activity and a crust that is fractured by the shrinking of a still-cooling interior.

“A New Moon Rises” is divided into six themes: Global Views, Exploration Sites, Discoveries, Vistas, Topography and Craters. These themes helped to determine which of the thousands of images taken by the LROC would be chosen for display. Visitors will also see new images from LROC projected on a large screen that will be updated daily. The exhibition includes a display of spare LROC cameras and a large 3-D model of a young lunar crater.

The exhibition is made possible by the support of NASA and Arizona State University.

The National Air and Space Museum building on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., is located at Sixth Street and Independence Avenue S.W. ”