This animation is a brief tour of several prominent features of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon" class="extiw" title="en:Moon">Moon</a>'s terrain: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tycho_crater" class="extiw" title="en:Tycho crater">Tycho crater</a>, the south pole, and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Pole-Aitken_basin" class="extiw" title="en:South Pole-Aitken basin">South Pole-Aitken basin</a>. It is match-moved to a <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lunar_topography_in_false_color_(JAXA,_ULCN_and_Tycho_DEM_datasets).ogv" title="File:Lunar topography in false color (JAXA, ULCN and Tycho DEM datasets).ogv">companion piece</a> showing the terrain elevations in false color.
The surface appearance is derived from photographs taken by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clementine_spacecraft" class="extiw" title="en:Clementine spacecraft">Clementine spacecraft</a>. Although it shows the visible surface in natural color, this animation does not depict realistic sunlight and shadows. This is especially significant near the poles, where certain parts of the terrain can be in permanent shadow and would never be fully visible in the manner depicted here.
<p>NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center<br>
Scientific Visualization Studio<br></p>
Some elevation data provided by JAXA/SELENE.
2009-04-15
<ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?3594">http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?3594</a> (movie and description)</li>
<li>Much higher resolution versions of this movie are available at the above address.</li></ul>