Ranger 7 took this image, the first picture of the Moon by aU.S. spacecraft, on 31 July 1964 at 13:09 UT (9:09 AM EDT) about 17 minutes before impacting the lunar surface. The area photographed is centered at 13 S, 10 W and covers about 360 km from top to bottom. The large crater at center right is the 108 km diameter Alphonsus. Above it is Ptolemaeus and below it Arzachel. The terminator is at the bottom right corner. Mare Nubium is at center and left. Nor this at about 11:00 at the center of the frame. The Ranger 7impact site is off the frame, to the left of the upper left corner. (Ranger 7, B001)
The Ranger series of spacecraft were designed solely to take high-quality pictures of the Moon and transmit them back to Earth in real time. The images were to be used for scientific study, as well as selecting landing sites for the Apollo Moon missions. Ranger 7 was the first of the Ranger series to be entirely successful. It transmitted 4,308high-quality images over the last 17 minutes of flight, the final image having a resolution of 0.5 meter/pixel.
Ranger 7 was launched July 28, 1964 and arrived at the Moon on July 31, 1964.
Voir l'image PIA02975: First Image of the Moon taken by a U.S. Spacecraft sur le site de la NASA.
About 50,000 Clementine images were processed to produce the four orthographic views of the Moon. Images PIA00302, PIA00303, PIA00304, and PIA00305 show albedo variations (normalized brightness or reflectivity) of the surface at a wavelength of 750 nm (just longward of visible red). The image projection is centered at 0 degree latitude and 180 degrees longitude. Mare Moscoviense (dark albedo feature upper left of image center) and South Pole-Aitken Basin (dark feature at bottom) represent maria regions largely absent on the lunar farside. The Clementine altimeter showed Aitken Basin to consist of a topographic rim about 2500 km in diameter, an inner shelf ranging from 400 to 600 km in width, and an irregular depressed floor about 12 km in depth.
Voir l'image PIA00304: Farside View of Earth's Moon as Seen by the Clementine Spacecraft sur le site de la NASA.
About 50,000 Clementine images were processed to produce the four orthographic views of the Moon. Images PIA00302, PIA00303, PIA00304, and PIA00305 show albedo variations (normalized brightness or reflectivity) of the surface at a wavelength of 750 nm (just longward of visible red). The image projection is centered at 0 degree latitude and 90 degrees longitude. The dark albedo features Mare Smythii (image center) and Mare Marginis (above Smythii) are just visible from Earth on the extreme eastern edge of the lunar nearside. Maria Crisium (directly west of Marginis) and Mare Fecuditatis (southwest of Crisium) are familiar nearside features as seen from Earth. Maria regions are believed to be large basins formed by impacts from cosmic projectiles later filled by basaltic lava flows from volcanic eruptions. Basaltic lava flows on the basin floors give maria their dark albedo appearance.
Voir l'image PIA00303: East Limb View of Earth's Moon as Seen by the Clementine Spacecraft sur le site de la NASA.
This view of the Moon's north pole is a mosaic assembled from 18 images taken by Galileo's imaging system through a green filter as the spacecraft flew by on December 7, 1992. The left part of the Moon is visible from Earth; this region includes the dark, lava-filled Mare Imbrium (upper left); Mare Serenitatis (middle left); Mare Tranquillitatis (lower left), and Mare Crisium, the dark circular feature toward the bottom of the mosaic. Also visible in this view are the dark lava plains of the Marginis and Smythii Basins at the lower right. The Humboldtianum Basin, a 650-kilometer (400-mile) impact structure partly filled with dark volcanic deposits, is seen at the center of the image. The Moon's north pole is located just inside the shadow zone, about a third of the way from the top left of the illuminated region.
Voir l'image PIA00130: Moon - North Pole Mosaic sur le site de la NASA.
These four images of the Moon are from data acquired by the Galileo spacecraft's Near-Earth Mapping Spectrometer during Galileo's December 1992 Earth/Moon flyby. The part of the Moon visible from Earth is toward the left, and the lunar north pole is near the terminator, upper right. The dark regions to left and below in the black-and-white image at upper left, are lunar Maria, including Mare Imbrium at upper left, Serenitatis and Tranquillitatis, lower left center, and the circular basin to the right is Crisium. The bright areas ringing Crisium and dominating the center of the images are the heavily cratered and mountainous lunar highlands. The black-and-white image used infrared wavelengths just beyond the visible deep red. The false-color map images (upper right and lower right) show the relative strength of silicate-rock absorption of near-infrared sunlight, at about 1-micron wavelength. Blue areas show stronger absorption and generally indicate materials with more pyroxene and olivine (iron-bearing silicate materials), while yellow indicates less absorption, due to original compositional variations. In young fresh craters, absorptions are also stronger due to the absence of meteorite-impact effects. Outlines of previously defined geological units are superimposed in the lower right image. Note correlation with the Maria/highlands features in the black-and-white image. The preliminary mineralogical map at lower left uses infrared band shape and intensity to visualize variations in pyroxene and olivine. Blue is related to low-calcium pyroxene, while green and red indicate high calcium and the iron/magnesium content of pyroxene, as well as olivine. The Galileo project, whose primary mission is the exploration of the Jupiter system in 1995-97, is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Voir l'image PIA00231: Moon As Seen By NIMS sur le site de la NASA.
This view of the north polar region of the Moon was obtained by Galileo's camera during the spacecraft's flyby of the Earth-Moon system on December 7 and 8, 1992. The north pole is to the lower right of the image. The view in the upper left is toward the horizon across the volcanic lava plains of Mare Imbrium. The prominent crater with the central peak is Pythagoras, an impact crater some 130 kilometers (80 miles) in diameter. The image was taken at a distance of 121,000 kilometers (75,000 miles) from the Moon through the violet filter of Galileo's imaging system. According to team scientists, the viewing geometry provided by the spacecraft's pass over the north pole and the low sun-angle illumination provide a unique opportunity to assess the geologic relationships among the smooth plains, cratered terrain and impact ejecta deposits in this region of the Moon. JPL manages the Galileo Project for NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications.
Voir l'image PIA00126: Moon - North Pole sur le site de la NASA.
Lunar mosaic of ~1500 Clementine images of the north polar region of the moon. The projection is orthographic centered on the north pole. The polar regions of the moon are of special interest because of the postulated occurrence of ice in permanently shadowed areas. The north pole of the moon is absent of the very rugged terrain seen at the south pole.
Voir l'image PIA00002: North Pole Region of the Moon as Seen by Clementine sur le site de la NASA.
This mosaic picture of the Moon was compiled from 18 images taken with a green filter by Galileo's imaging system during the spacecraft's flyby on December 7, 1992, some 11 hours before its Earth flyby at 1509 UTC (7:09 a.m. Pacific Standard Time) December 8. The north polar region is near the top part of the mosaic, which also shows Mare Imbrium, the dark area on the left; Mare Serenitatis at center; and Mare Crisium, the circular dark area to the right. Bright crater rim and ray deposits are from Copernicus, an impact crater 96 kilometers (60 miles) in diameter. Computer processing has exaggerated the brightness of poorly illuminated features near the day/night terminator in the polar regions, giving a false impression of high reflectivity there. The digital image processing was done by DLR the German aerospace research establishment near Munich, an international collaborator in the Galileo mission. The Galileo project, whose primary mission is the exploration of the Jupiter system in 1995-97, is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Voir l'image PIA00128: Moon - 18 Image Mosaic sur le site de la NASA.
These pictures of the Moon were taken by the Galileo spacecraft at (right photo) 6:47 p.m. PST Dec.8, 1990 from a distance of almost 220,000 miles, and at (left photo) 9:35 a.m. PST Dec. 9, 1990 at a range of more than 350,000 miles. The picture on the right shows the dark Oceanus Procellarum in the upper center, with Mare Imbrium above it and the smaller circular Mare Humorum below. The Orientale Basin, with a small mare in its center, is on the lower left near the limb or edge. Between stretches the cratered highland terrain, with scattered bright young craters on highlands and maria alike. The picture at left shows the globe of the Moon rotated, putting Mare Imbrium on the eastern limb and moving the Orientale Basin almost to the center. The extent of the cratered highlands on the far side is very apparent. At lower left, near the limb, is the South Pole Aitken basin, similar to Orientale but very much older and some 1,200 miles in diameter. This feature was previously known as a large depression in the southern far side; this image shows its Orientale like structure and darkness relative to surrounding highlands.
Voir l'image PIA00077: Moon - 2 Views of Orientale Basin sur le site de la NASA.
Copernicus is 93 km wide and is located within the Mare Imbrium Basin, northern nearside of the Moon (10 degrees N., 20 degrees W.). Image shows crater floor, floor mounds, rim, and rayed ejecta. Rays from the ejecta are superposed on all other surrounding terrains which places the crater in its namesake age group: the Copernican system, established as the youngest assemblage of rocks on the Moon (Shoemaker and Hackman, 1962, The Moon: London, Academic Press, p.289- 300).
Voir l'image PIA00094: Limb of Copernicus Impact Crater sur le site de la NASA.
This color image of the Moon was taken by the Galileo spacecraft at 9:35 a.m. PST Dec. 9, 1990, at a range of about 350,000 miles. The color composite uses monochrome images taken through violet, red, and near-infrared filters. The concentric, circular Orientale basin, 600 miles across, is near the center; the nearside is to the right, the far side to the left. At the upper right is the large, dark Oceanus Procellarum; below it is the smaller Mare Humorum. These, like the small dark Mare Orientale in the center of the basin, formed over 3 billion years ago as basaltic lava flows. At the lower left, among the southern cratered highlands of the far side, is the South-Pole-Aitken basin, similar to Orientale but twice as great in diameter and much older and more degraded by cratering and weathering. The cratered highlands of the near and far sides and the Maria are covered with scattered bright, young ray craters.
Voir l'image PIA00113: Moon Color Composite sur le site de la NASA.
About 50,000 Clementine images were processed to produce the four orthographic views of the Moon. Images PIA00302, PIA00303, PIA00304, and PIA00305 show albedo variations (normalized brightness or reflectivity) of the surface at a wavelength of 750 nm (just longward of visible red). The image projection is centered at 0 degree latitude and 0 degree longitude. The lunar nearside is a contrast between dark and light albedo surfaces that has been fancied as the "Man in the Moon." Lunar terrain types are still designated by their 17th century name maria (dark albedo features also known as basins) and terra (brighter albedo features also known as uplands or highlands). The maria constitutes about 16 percent and the terra 84 percent of the lunar surface. The nearside is composed of about 30 percent maria. Extensive bright ray systems surround craters Copernicus (upper left center) and Tycho (near bottom). Studies have shown that two major processes, impact and basaltic volcanism have shaped the major physical features of the lunar surface.
Voir l'image PIA00302: Nearside of Earth's Moon as Seen by the Clementine Spacecraft sur le site de la NASA.
This narrow angle image taken by Cassini's camera system of the Moon is one of the best of a sequence of narrow angle frames taken as the spacecraft passed by the Moon on the way to its closest approach with Earth on August 17, 1999. The 80 millisecond exposure was taken through a spectral filter centered at 0.33 microns; the filter bandpass was 85 Angstroms wide. The spatial scale of the image is about 1.4 miles per pixel (about 2.3 kilometers). The imaging data were processed and released by the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations (CICLOPS) at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, Tucson, AZ.
Photo Credit: NASA/JPL/Cassini Imaging Team/University of Arizona
Cassini, launched in 1997, is a joint mission of NASA, the European Space Agency and Italian Space Agency. The mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington DC. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA.
This false-color mosaic was constructed from a series of 53 images taken through three spectral filters by Galileo's imaging system as the spacecraft flew over the northern regions of the Moon on December 7, 1992. The part of the Moon visible from Earth is on the left side in this view. The color mosaic shows compositional variations in parts of the Moon's northern hemisphere. Bright pinkish areas are highlands materials, such as those surrounding the oval lava-filled Crisium impact basin toward the bottom of the picture. Blue to orange shades indicate volcanic lava flows. To the left of Crisium, the dark blue Mare Tranquillitatis is richer in titanium than the green and orange maria above it. Thin mineral-rich soils associated with relatively recent impacts are represented by light blue colors; the youngest craters have prominent blue rays extending from them. The Galileo project, whose primary mission is the exploration of the Jupiter system in 1995-97, is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Voir l'image PIA00131: Moon - False Color Mosaic sur le site de la NASA.
About 50,000 Clementine images were processed to produce the four orthographic views of the Moon. Images PIA00302, PIA00303, PIA00304, and PIA00305 show albedo variations (normalized brightness or reflectivity) of the surface at a wavelength of 750 nm (just longward of visible red). The image projection is centered at 0 degree latitude and 270 degrees longitude. Maria Orientale (ringed feature just below image center) is just visible from Earth on the extreme western edge of the nearside of the Moon. Oceanus Procellarum (large dark albedo area in upper right of image) is a familiar nearside feature as seen from Earth.
Voir l'image PIA00305: West Limb View of Earth's Moon as Seen by the Clementine Spacecraft sur le site de la NASA.
Ranger 7 B-camera image of Guericke crater (11.5 S, 14.1 W, diameter 63 km) taken from a distance of 1335 km. The dark flat floor of Mare Nubium dominates most of the image, which was taken 8.5 minutes before Ranger 7 impacted the Moon on 31 July 1964. The frame is about 230 km across and north is at 12:30. The impact site is off the frame to the left. (Ranger 7, B100)
The Ranger series of spacecraft were designed solely to take high-quality pictures of the Moon and transmit them back to Earth in real time. The images were to be used for scientific study, as well as selecting landing sites for the Apollo Moon missions. Ranger 7 was the first of the Ranger series to be entirely successful. It transmitted 4,308high-quality images over the last 17 minutes of flight, the final image having a resolution of 0.5 meter/pixel.
Ranger 7 was launched July 28, 1964 and arrived at the Moon on July 31, 1964.
Voir l'image PIA02974: Guericke Crater as seen by Ranger 7 sur le site de la NASA.
In 1994, during its flight, the Clementine spacecraft returned images of the Moon. In addition to the geologic mapping cameras, the Clementine spacecraft also carried two Star Tracker cameras for navigation. These lightweight (0.3 kg) cameras kept the spacecraft on track by constantly observing the positions of stars, reminiscent of the age-old seafaring tradition of sextant/star navigation. These navigation cameras were also to take some spectacular wide angle images of the Moon.
In this picture the Moon is seen illuminated solely by light reflected from the Earth--Earthshine! The bright glow on the lunar horizon is caused by light from the solar corona; the sun is just behind the lunar limb. Caught in this image is the planet Venus at the top of the frame.
Voir l'image PIA00434: Clementine Observes the Moon, Solar Corona, and Venus sur le site de la NASA.
On April 14, 2003, a special maneuver of the Terra spacecraft was performed as it traversed the nightside of orbit 17672. This maneuver entailed a "backward somersault" of the spacecraft as it pitched end-over-end, allowing the normally Earth-viewing instruments to look at deep space and the waxing gibbous Moon. The purpose of this acrobatic feat is to assist in the calibration of several of Terra's instruments. Over a 16-minute interval, the lunar disk passed through the fields-of-view of all nine MISR cameras, resulting in this unique set of images. Shown here are "raw" red-band data, with no adjustments for radiometric calibration. Because the pitch rate of the spacecraft resulted in different pixel spacings in the left-right and up-down directions, the aspect ratios of the raw images have been adjusted to provide roughly circular disks.
Each image is labeled with the name of the camera which acquired it. The "D" cameras are the ones which normally view the Earth at the most oblique angles, and the letters "f" and "a" denote fore- and aft-viewing orientations, respectively. "An" is the vertical-viewing (nadir) camera. Why are the "D" images the sharpest? The letters "A," "B," "C," and "D" refer to the different lens designs used on MISR, with the "D" lenses having focal lengths more than twice as large as the "A" lenses. A pixel at the center of the lunar disk subtends about 65 kilometers for the "D" cameras and about 137 kilometers for the "A" cameras. As the Moon passed into the field-of-view of each of the nine cameras, the lunar disk was always viewed "straight on," so there is no multiangular effect in these images.
Familiar lunar features are clearly recognizable. The dark lunar "maria" are vast plains of basaltic lava. The feature near the upper right-hand edge of the lunar disk is Mare Crisium. Between it and image center is Mare Tranquillitatis, site of the 1969 Apollo 11 lunar landing. About halfway between image center and the left edge of the disk is the crater Copernicus, with the large Mare Imbrium to its north. Near the bottom is the crater Tycho, with bright rays of ejecta extending in many directions.
Planning for this maneuver has been underway since before Terra's launch. A high school Applied Engineering Competition was also held (in partnership with the Goddard Space Flight Center's Educational Programs Office) in which students were asked to visualize the precise timing and mechanics of Terra's on-orbit calibration maneuvers. For further information see http://terra.nasa.gov/Events/Competition/.
MISR was built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Office of Earth Science, Washington, DC. The Terra satellite is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology.
Voir l'image PIA04327: MISR Views the Moon sur le site de la NASA.
This false-color mosaic of part of the Moon was constructed from 54 images taken by Galileo's imaging system as the spacecraft flew past the Moon on December 7, 1992. The mosaic images were processed to exaggerate the colors of the lunar surface for analytical purposes. Titanium-rich soils, typical of the Apollo 11 landing site, appear blue, as seen in Mare Tranquillitatis, left side; soils lower in titanium appear orange, as seen in Mare Serenitatis, center right. Most of the lunar highlands appear red, indicating their low titanium and iron composition. The Galileo project, whose primary mission is the exploration of the Jupiter system in 1995-97, is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Voir l'image PIA00129: Moon - False Color Mosaic sur le site de la NASA.
This image of the western hemisphere of the Moon was taken through a green filter by the Galileo spacecraft at 9:35 a.m. PST Dec. 9 at a range of about 350,000 miles. In the center is the Orientale Basin, 600 miles in diameter, formed about 3.8 billion years ago by the impact of an asteroid-size body. Orientale's dark center is a small mare. To the right is the lunar nearside with the great, dark Oceanus Procellarum above and the small, circular, dark Mare Humorum below. Maria are broad plains formed mostly over 3 billion years ago as vast basaltic lava flows. To the left is the lunar far side with fewer maria but, at lower left, the South-Pole-Aitken basin, about 1200 miles in diameter, which resembles Orientale but is much older and more weathered and battered by cratering. The intervening cratered highlands of both sides, as well as the maria, are dotted with bright, young craters. This image was "reprojected" so as to center the Orientale Basin, and was filtered to enhance the visibility of small features. The digital image processing was done by DLR, the German Aerospace Research Establishment near Munich, an international collaborator in the Galileo mission.
Voir l'image PIA00120: Moon - Western Hemisphere sur le site de la NASA.
These color visualizations of the Moon were obtained by the Galileo spacecraft as it left the Earth after completing its first Earth Gravity Assist. The image on the right was acquired at 6:47 p.m. PST Dec. 8, 1990, from a distance of almost 220,000 miles, while that on the left was obtained at 9:35 a.m. PST Dec. 9, at a range of more than 350,000 miles. On the right, the nearside of the Moon and about 30 degrees of the far side (left edge) are visible. In the full disk on the left, a little less than half the nearside and more than half the far side (to the right) are visible. The color composites used images taken through the violet and two near infrared filters. The visualizations depict spectral properties of the lunar surface known from analysis of returned samples to be related to composition or weathering of surface materials. The greenish-blue region at the upper right in the full disk and the upper part of the right hand picture is Oceanus Procellarum. The deeper blue mare regions here and elsewhere are relatively rich in titanium, while the greens, yellows and light oranges indicate basalts low in titanium but rich in iron and magnesium. The reds (deep orange in the right hand picture) are typically cratered highlands relatively poor in titanium, iron and magnesium. In the full disk picture on the left, the yellowish area to the south is part of the newly confirmed South Pole Aitken basin, a large circular depression some 1,200 miles across, perhaps rich in iron and magnesium. Analysis of Apollo lunar samples provided the basis for calibration of this spectral map; Galileo data, in turn, permit broad extrapolation of the Apollo based composition information, reaching ultimately to the far side of the Moon.
Voir l'image PIA00075: Moon Color Visualizations sur le site de la NASA.
Mariner 10 was launched on November 3, 1973, 12:45 am PST, from Cape Canaveral on an Atlas/Centaur rocket (a reconditioned Intercontinental Ballistic Missile - ICBM). Within 12 hours of launch the twin cameras were turned on and several hundred pictures of both the Earth and the Moon were acquired over the following days.
In this unusual view eastern Mare Frigor is near the center of the disc, while Mare Crisiumis the large circular feature near the lower right limb. The heavily cratered region shown in the top of the mosaic shows portions of the Moon not seen from the Earth.
This mosaic is composed of 22 frames acquired in orange (15), clear (4), UV (2), and UV-polarized (1) wavelengths by the Mariner 10 Spacecraft.
The Mariner 10 mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science, explored Venus in February 1974 on the way to three encounters with Mercury-in March and September 1974 and in March 1975. The spacecraft took more than 7,000 photos of Mercury, Venus, the Earth and the Moon.
Voir l'image PIA02442: Moon's North Pole sur le site de la NASA.
HUBBLE SHOOTS THE MOON in a change of venue from peering at the distant universe, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has taken a look at Earth's closest neighbor in space, the Moon. Hubble was aimed at one of the Moon's most dramatic and photogenic targets, the 58 mile-wide (93 km) impact crater Copernicus. The image was taken while the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) was aimed at a different part of the moon to measure the colors of sunlight reflected off the Moon. Hubble cannot look at the Sun directly and so must use reflected light to make measurements of the Sun's spectrum. Once calibrated by measuring the Sun's spectrum, the STIS can be used to study how the planets both absorb and reflect sunlight.
(upper left) The Moon is so close to Earth that Hubble would need to take a mosaic of 130 pictures to cover the entire disk. This ground-based picture from Lick Observatory shows the area covered in Hubble's photomosaic with the WideField Planetary Camera 2.
(center) Hubble's crisp bird's-eye view clearly shows the ray pattern of bright dust ejected out of the crater over one billion years ago, when an asteroid larger than a mile across slammed into the Moon. Hubble can resolve features as small as 600 feet across in the terraced walls of the crater, and the hummock-like blanket of material blasted out by the meteor impact.(lower right) a close-up view of Copernicus' terraced walls. Hubble can resolve features as small as 280 feet across.
Voir l'image PIA01541: Crater Copernicus sur le site de la NASA.
This composite image was made from three narrow-angle Cassini images which captured a significant portion of the Moon during the Moon flyby imaging sequence. From left to right, they show the Moon in the green, blue and ultraviolet regions of the spectrum. The spatial scale in the blue and ultraviolet images was 2.3 km/pixel. The original scale in the green image (which was captured in the usual manner and then reduced size by 2x2 pixel summing within the camera system) was 4.6 km/pixels. It has been enlarged for display to the same scale as the other two. All three images have been scaled so that the brightness of Crisium basin, the dark circular region in the upper right, is the same in each image. The imaging data were processed and released by the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations (CICLOPS) at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, Tucson, AZ.
Photo Credit: NASA/JPL/Cassini Imaging Team/University of Arizona
Cassini, launched in 1997, is a joint mission of NASA, the European Space Agency and Italian Space Agency. The mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington DC. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA.
Voir l'image PIA02322: Triptych of the Moon sur le site de la NASA.
This false-color photograph is a composite of 15 images of the Moon taken through three color filters by Galileo's solid-state imaging system during the spacecraft's passage through the Earth-Moon system on December 8, 1992. When this view was obtained, the spacecraft was 425,000 kilometers (262,000 miles) from the Moon and 69,000 kilometers (43,000 miles) from Earth. The false-color processing used to create this lunar image is helpful for interpreting the surface soil composition. Areas appearing red generally correspond to the lunar highlands, while blue to orange shades indicate the ancient volcanic lava flow of a mare, or lunar sea. Bluer mare areas contain more titanium than do the orange regions. Mare Tranquillitatis, seen as a deep blue patch on the right, is richer in titanium than Mare Serenitatis, a slightly smaller circular area immediately adjacent to the upper left of Mare Tranquillitatis. Blue and orange areas covering much of the left side of the Moon in this view represent many separate lava flows in Oceanus Procellarum. The small purple areas found near the center are pyroclastic deposits formed by explosive volcanic eruptions. The fresh crater Tycho, with a diameter of 85 kilometers (53 miles), is prominent at the bottom of the photograph, where part of the Moon's disk is missing.
Voir l'image PIA00132: Moon - False Color Mosaic sur le site de la NASA.
This image of the moon was obtained by the Galileo Solid State imaging system on Dec. 8 at 7 p.m. PST as the Galileo spacecraft passed the Earth and was able to view the lunar surface from a vantage point not possible from the Earth. On the right-hand side of the image is seen the dark maria of Oceanus Procellarum, also visible from the Earth. The dark spots in the center are Mare Orientale, on the western limb of the nearside of the moon, a region barely visible from the Earth. This region and the bright far side highlands on the left have not been seen previously by a camera system such as the one on the Galileo spacecraft, which provides multispectral images of the lunar limb and far side which have not previously been obtained. Comparison of such images to those of the near-side areas from which Apollo astronauts have returned samples will help us understand the spectral properties and composition of the lunar far side.
Voir l'image PIA00225: Far Side of the Moon sur le site de la NASA.
During its flight, the Galileo spacecraft returned images of the Moon. The Galileo spacecraft took these images on December 7, 1992 on its way to explore the Jupiter system in 1995-97. The distinct bright ray crater at the bottom of the image is the Tycho impact basin. The dark areas are lava rock filled impact basins: Oceanus Procellarum (on the left), Mare Imbrium (center left), Mare Serenitatis and Mare Tranquillitatis (center), and Mare Crisium (near the right edge). This picture contains images through the Violet, 756 nm, 968 nm filters. The color is 'enhanced' in the sense that the CCD camera is sensitive to near infrared wavelengths of light beyond human vision. The Galileo project is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Voir l'image PIA00405: Earth's Moon sur le site de la NASA.
Photomosaic of lunar panorama near the Tycho crater taken by Surveyor 7. The hills on the center horizon are about eight miles away from the spacecraft.
Since the landing site survey for the Apollo missions had been successfully completed by the previous Surveyors, the landing site for Surveyor 7 was selected more for its scientific interest. Surveyor 7, in addition to taking thousands of images and gathering a wide variety of surface data, performed star surveys, took pictures of Earth, and tested laser-pointing techniques by detecting laser beams from Earth.
The primary objectives of the Surveyor program having already been met by the previous missions, Surveyor 7 was sent to perform a soft landing in a type of terrain different from the previous Surveyors. Other objectives were to obtain images of the landing site, manipulate the soil and analyze its composition, and obtain temperature and radar reflectivity data.
Surveyor 7 was launched on January 7, 1968 and landed on January 10, 1968.
Voir l'image PIA02977: Photomosaic of Tycho Crater - Surveyor 7 sur le site de la NASA.
This pair of views shows how little of the full image frame was taken up by the Moon in test images taken Sept. 8, 2005, by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The Mars-bound camera imaged Earth's Moon from a distance of about 10 million kilometers (6 million miles) away -- 26 times the distance between Earth and the Moon -- as part of an activity to test and calibrate the camera. The images are very significant because they show that the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft and this camera can properly operate together to collect very high-resolution images of Mars. The target must move through the camera's telescope view in just the right direction and speed to acquire a proper image. The day's test images also demonstrate that the focus mechanism works properly with the telescope to produce sharp images.
Out of the 20,000-pixel-by-6,000-pixel full frame, the Moon's diameter is about 340 pixels, if the full Moon could be seen. The illuminated crescent is about 60 pixels wide, and the resolution is about 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel. At Mars, the entire image region will be filled with high-resolution information.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched on Aug. 12, 2005, is on course to reach Mars on March 10, 2006. After gradually adjusting the shape of its orbit for half a year, it will begin its primary science phase in November 2006. From the mission's planned science orbit about 300 kilometers (186 miles) above the surface of Mars, the high resolution camera will be able to discern features as small as one meter or yard across.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, for the NASA Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, prime contractor for the project, built the spacecraft. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo., built the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment instrument for the University of Arizona, Tucson, to provide to the mission. The HiRISE Operations Center at the University of Arizona processes images from the camera.
Lunar mosaic of ~1500 Clementine images of the south polar region of the moon. The projection is orthographic, centered on the south pole. The Schrodinger Basin (320 km in diameter) is located in the lower right of the mosaic. Amundsen-Ganswindt is the more subdued circular basin between Schrodinger and the pole. The polar regions of the moon are of special interest because of the postulated occurrence of ice in permanently shadowed areas. The south pole is of greater interest because the area that remains in shadow is much larger than that at the north pole.
Voir l'image PIA00001: South Pole Region of the Moon as Seen by Clementine sur le site de la NASA.
The Aristarchus region is one of the most diverse and interesting areas on the Moon. About 500 Clementine images acquired through three spectral filters (415, 750, and 1000 nm) were processed and combined into a multispectral mosaic of this region. Shown here is a color-ratio composite, in which the 750/415 ratio controls the red-channel brightness, it inverse (415/750) controls the blue, and the 750/1000 ratio controls the green. Color ratios serve to cancel out the dominant brightness variations and topographic shading, thus isolating the color differences related to composition or mineralogy. The Aristarchus plateau is a rectangular, elevated crustal block about 200 km across, surrounded by the vast mare lava plains of Oceanus Procellarum. Clementine altimetry shows that the plateau is a tilted slab sloping down to the northwest, that rises more than 2 km above Oceanus Procellarum on its southeastern margin. The plateau was probably uplifted, tilted, and fractured by the Imbrium basin impact, which also deposited hummocky ejecta on the plateau surface. The plateau has experienced intense volcanic activity, both effusive and explosive. It includes the densest concentration of lunar sinuous rilles, including the largest known, Vallis Schroteri, which is about 160 km long, up to 11 km wide, and 1 km deep. The rilles in this area begin at 'cobra-head' craters, which are the apparent vents for low-viscosity lavas that formed vents for 'dark mantling' deposit covering the plateau and nearby areas to the north and east. This dark mantling deposit probably consists primarily of iron-rich glass spheres (pyroclastics or cinders), and has a deep red color on this image. Rather than forming cinder cones as on Earth, the lower gravity and vacuum of the Moon allows the pyroclastics to travel much greater heights and distances, thus depositing an extensive regional blanket. The Aristarchus impact occurred relatively recently in geologic time, after the Copernicus impact but before the Tycho impact. The 42 km diameter crater and its ejecta are especially interesting because of its location on the uplifted southeastern corner of the Aristarchus plateau. As a result, the crater ejecta reveal two different stratigraphic sequences: that of the plateau to the northwest, and that of the portion of Oceanus Procellarum to the southwest. This asymmetry is apparent in the colors of the ejecta as seen in this image, which is reddish to the southeast, dominated by excavated mare lava, and bluish to the northwest, caused by the excavation of highland materials in the plateau. The extent of the continuous ejecta blanket also appears asymmetric: it extends about twice as far to the north and east than in other directions, approximately following the plateau margins. These ejecta lobes could be caused by an oblique impact from the southeast, or it may reflect the presence of the plateau during ejecta emplacement. Two dark blue spots in the center of Aristarchus represent tan especially interesting discovery. The infrared spectral properties measured by Clementine are consistent with a composition of almost pure anorthosite, the primitive rock type produced by the lunar magma ocean. This is the first discovery of a major exposure of anorthosite in this region of the Moon, well within the boundary of the hypothetical Procellarum basin. Don Wilhelms (Geologic History of the Moon, USGS Professional Paper, 1984) proposed that the giant Procellarum basin entirely removed the upper anorthositic crust from the north-central nearside of the Moon.
Voir l'image PIA00090: Multispectral Mosaic of the Aristarchus Crater and Plateau sur le site de la NASA.
This crescent view of Earth's Moon in infrared wavelengths comes from a camera test by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft on its way to Mars. The mission's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera took the image on Sept. 8, 2005, while at a distance of about 10 million kilometers (6 million miles) from the Moon. The dark feature on the right is Mare Crisium. From that distance, the Moon would appear as a star-like point of light to the unaided eye. The test verified the camera's focusing capability and provided an opportunity for calibration. The spacecraft's Context Camera and Optical Navigation Camera also performed as expected during the test.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched on Aug. 12, 2005, is on course to reach Mars on March 10, 2006. After gradually adjusting the shape of its orbit for half a year, it will begin its primary science phase in November 2006. From the mission's planned science orbit about 300 kilometers (186 miles) above the surface of Mars, the high resolution camera will be able to discern features as small as one meter or yard across.
Image of Surveyor 1's shadow against the lunar surface in the late lunar afternoon, with the horizon at the upper right.
Surveyor 1, the first of the Surveyor missions to make a successful soft landing, proved the spacecraft design and landing technique. In addition to transmitting over 11,000 pictures, it sent information on the bearing strength of the lunar soil, the radar reflectivity, and temperature.
Surveyor 1 was launched on May 30, 1966 and landed on June 2, 1966.
Voir l'image PIA02976: Surveyor 1 Shadow sur le site de la NASA.
During its flight, the Galileo spacecraft returned images of the Moon. The Galileo spacecraft surveyed the Moon on December 7, 1992, on its way to explore the Jupiter system in 1995-1997. The left part of this north pole view is visible from Earth. This color picture is a mosaic assembled from 18 images taken by Galileo's imaging system through a green filter. The left part of this picture shows the dark, lava-filled Mare Imbrium (upper left); Mare Serenitatis (middle left), Mare Tranquillitatis (lower left), and Mare Crisium, the dark circular feature toward the bottom of the mosaic. Also visible in this view are the dark lava plains of the Marginis and Smythii Basins at the lower right. The Humboldtianum Basin, a 650-kilometer (400-mile) impact structure partly filled with dark volcanic deposits, is seen at the center of the image. The Moon's north pole is located just inside the shadow zone, about a third of the way from the top left of the illuminated region. The Galileo project is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Voir l'image PIA00404: Moon - North Polar Mosaic, Color sur le site de la NASA.
This image of the crescent moon was obtained by the Galileo Solid State imaging system on December 8 at 5 a.m. PST as the Galileo spacecraft neared the Earth. The image was taken through a green filter and shows the western part of the lunar nearside. The smallest features visible are 8 kilometers (5 miles) in size. Major features visible include the dark plains of Mare Imbrium in the upper part of the image, the bright crater Copernicus (100 km, 60 miles in diameter) in the central part, and the heavily cratered lunar highlands in the bottom of the image. The landing sides of the Apollo 12, 14 and 15 missions lie within the central part of the image. Samples returned from these sites will be used to calibrate this and accompanying images taken in different colors, which will extend the knowledge of the spectral and compositional properties of the nearside of the moon, seen from Earth, to the lunar far side.
Voir l'image PIA00224: Moon - Western Near Side sur le site de la NASA.
Surveyor 5 image of the footpad resting in the lunar soil. The trench at right was formed by the footpad sliding during landing. Surveyor 5 landed on the Moon on 11 September 1967 at 1.41 N, 23.18E in Mare Tranquillitatis. The spacecraft landed on the inside edge of a small rimless crater at an angle of about 20 degrees, explaining the sliding. The footpad is about half a meter in diameter.(Surveyor 5, 67-H-1340) radar reflectivity data.
The purpose of the seven Surveyor missions (five of which were successful) was to land safely on the Moon, testing the landing techniques planned for the manned Apollo lunar landers, and take close-up images of the surface and make other observations to find locations that would be safe for Apollo landings.
Surveyor 5 was equipped with an alpha-backscatter instrument to determine chemical composition of the soil and a small bar magnet in one of its landing feet to test for magnetic material. Even though it had developed a helium regulator leak and had to land using a hastily and radically re-designed descent profile, the landing was flawless and Surveyor 5 performed even better than its predecessors.
Surveyor 5 was launched on September 8, 1967 and landed on September 11, 1967.
Voir l'image PIA02978: Surveyor 5 Footpad Resting on the Lunar Soil sur le site de la NASA.
