This is the first image returned by the Soviet Union's Luna 3 in 1959, taken by the wide-angle lens. It showed the farside of the Moon was very different from the nearside, most noticeably in its lack of lunar maria (the dark areas). Courtesy: NASA/GSFC
- The lunar farside as never seen before! NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter camera system has enabled a mosaic of images showing the Moon’s farside in spectacular detail. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) continues to churn out impressive imagery of our celestial next door neighbor – the Moon.
A just-released mosaic of the Moon’s farside makes use of over 15,000 wide angle camera images acquired by LRO between November 2009 and February 2011.
The result: The lunar farside as never seen before!
Mark Robinson, principal investigator for the camera at Arizona State University in Tempe, points out it was in1959 that the lunar farside was first imaged by the former Soviet Union’s Luna 3 spacecraft.
Robinson said the imagery shows basaltic volcanism is restricted to relatively few, smaller regions on the farside, and the battered highlands crust dominate. A “different world” compared to our view from Earth of the Moon’s nearside.
“Past studies have shown that the crust on the farside is thicker, likely making it more difficult for magmas to erupt on the surface, limiting the amount of farside mare basalts,” Robinson explained.
Why is the farside crust thicker?
“That is still up for debate,” Robinson added.
As the LRO mission progresses, new Moon mosaics will be released.
Launched in June 2009, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is allowing researchers to create the most precise and complete map to date of the Moon’s complex, heavily cratered landscape.
LRO has served human spaceflight interests by charting future exploration sites on the Moon…as well as carrying out a rich, on-going, scientific agenda.
By LD/CSE