NASA has posted close-up images of the moon online, based on data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The music accompanying the visualization is Claude Debussy’s piano work Clair de Lune, which also inspired the rendering.
The video shows a day on the moon, from sunrise to sunset, with shadows marking the distinctive structures on the lunar surface. The slow rendering is accompanied by the dreamy Clair de Lune, or Moonlight, the third movement in Debussy’s four-part composition Suite Bergamasque.
The images come from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio, which used data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter launched in 2009, specifically from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter. That component shoots laser light on the lunar surface and by measuring the time between sending and receiving the pulses, it is possible to draw up a detailed topographic map.
The music is a performance by the American National Symphony Orchestra, which earlier this year held a concert in Washington under the title ‘NSO Pops: Space, the Next Frontier’, in honor of the sixtieth anniversary of NASA. Among others, Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra was performed there, as well as music from Carl Sagan’s Voyager Golden Record.