#lroc

[therealuniverse]

Chang’e 5 lander on the Moon

The US Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft carries an impressive camera, LROC. It imaged the landing site of China’s Chang’e 5 sampling mission just after the spacecraft landed on the surface. That spacecraft has since cored into its landing site, collected samples, and sent those samples out into space – with a goal of landing them in Inner Mongolia next week.

-JBB

Image credit: https://www.lroc.asu.edu/posts/1172

[earthstory]

A kipuka on the Moon

Kipuka is a Hawaiian term for a common occurrence on the slopes of the active volcanoes. Trees grow all over the island of Hawaii, including on the active parts of the volcano. In those areas, those trees will occasionally be overrun by streams of lava which burn away the vegetation where it flows. But, the lava doesn’t cover the entire area; it moves in channels and flows downhill to the ocean. Consequently, eruptions commonly leave behind a lush oasis of vegetation surrounded on all sides by barren lava flows called a kipuka.

There aren’t trees on the Moon, but there is topography. Craters and volcanic flows create high ground around which lava can flow.

This image shows a lunar kipuka; an area of the land surrounded by younger lava. The large crater in this photo has been breached at its left-hand side by lavas from Mare Imbrium, one of the large lava fields on the Moon’s near-side.

There is even a shoreline preserved in this crater, best-expressed on the inside of the crater at the right-hand side of the image as a line parallel to the crater rim.

This image was taken by the LROC instrument, the high-resolution camera on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission. The crater itself is ~2.7 kilometers wide and was originally about 500 meters deep; much of that depth has been filled in by the lava flow.

-JBB

Image credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/news/index.php?%2Farchives%2F787-Lunar-Kipuka.html

[justement]

Full resolution photographs from the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space missions (’61-‘72) and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (2009-2016)

http://tothemoon.ser.asu.edu/

[therealuniverse]

A gorgeous tour of the mon driven by recent mission data.

[therealuniverse]

One of those things impacts do When a large meteor slams into a planet or a moon, many things happen. The rocks that are impacted are pulverized, sometimes there is enough energy to melt the rocks, the mantle of the planet can begin flowing in response…and vast amounts of material are removed.

We recognize the end results of the removal of material from an impact as the classic “crater” seen any time you look at a body like the moon. Excavation of the rocks that are at the impact site is probably the effect of impacts that we’re most familiar with. The planets of this solar system are just covered with craters; places where impacts excavated material. So, if the main thing that happens during an impact is that “material is thrown out”, it has to land somewhere, doesn’t it? Well, here’s an example of what happens to the rocks that are excavated. They’re lifted and thrown out of the crater along raypaths. The debris tossed out of the crater falls along lines moving away from the impact site, spreading out and thinning out with distance away from the source. This image is from LROC, the high-resolution Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (on the Luanr Reconnaissance Orbiter, LRO). You see a series of rays from a fresh crater formed to the bottom left of this image. The image itself is 1080 meters wide, and is from the northern part of the moon, 77° north latitude. Because this image is close to the pole, the source of sunlight comes from the bottom in this image, which is why the lower-right is the brightest section. Some previous topography, including craters and hills, are preserved beneath the pattern of the ejecta, and there are small craters superimposed on the linear stripes that have fallen since the larger crater formed. -JBB Image credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/700

[therealuniverse]

A zoom in on the Moon's South Pole, with views as the shadows dance around the high terrain. Summary from The Planetary Society:

"The Moon's north and south poles have high points that are almost always in sunlight, and low spots that are permanently dark. This NASA visualization starts on the side of the Moon we see from Earth—with the Apollo landing sites labeled—and moves down to the south pole, where a timelapse shows changing illumination conditions for an entire year. The large crater in the center, Shackleton crater, lies in permanent darkness, but its raised rims are nearly constantly illuminated. High-sunlight areas are good locations for human habitats because they stay warm and can draw near-continuous power from solar panels, while nearby permanently dark areas harbor water ice that could be mined for air, water, and rocket propellant. Credit: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio"

[therealuniverse]

A tour of the Apollo sites on the Moon - including the Lunar Module Descent Stages, the impact sites for the Lunar Module Ascent Stages that were dropped onto the Moon, and the Saturn SIVB rocket stages that propelled humans to the Moon. These have been heavily imaged by the great camera LROC on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.

[therealuniverse]

Spend an hour flying over the Moon in 4k, with images provided by the LROC instrument on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Spacecraft.