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Complicated Crater
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
The crater rim is well-formed and relatively distinct, with ejected blocks nearby (some blocks might even fall inside the crater). Portions of the upper crater walls have jagged, fractured material that may serve as the source for some of the mass-wasting observed lower on the crater walls. This image was released June 20, 2013.
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Ka-Pow!
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
High-reflectance ejecta and low-reflectance impact melt streamers surround this fresh impact crater. This image was released June 20, 2013.
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Young Oval Crater
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
This young crater formed on the sloping southern wall of Harvey crater, which is very degraded, and may be an example in which target surface slope controlled final crater shape (as opposed to impact angle). This image was released June 20, 2013.
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Revealed Surface
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
Southern slope of unnamed fracture along the eastern mare/highland boundary of Mare Insularum. This image was released June 13, 2013.
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Layer of Pyroclastics
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
Northeastern wall of Bode C crater. This image was released June 12, 2013.
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Giordano Bruno Whorl
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
The crater Giordano Bruno is a favorite of lunar scientists due to its relatively young age and the amazing impact melt features found within and without the crater walls. This image was released June 7, 2013.
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Slope Resurfacing
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
This image highlights the wall of Jansen U crater, located at the northeast section of Mare Tranquillitatis. This image was released June 11, 2013.
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Star Light Star Bright
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
A sharp reflectance contrast is found in Humboldt crater. This image was released May 29, 2013.
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A Truncated Rille
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
This image shows a close look at this sinuous rille in Jules Verne crater on the lunar farside. This image was released May 30, 2013.
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Regolith all the way down?
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
This image shows a bench crater in the lunar mare. Bench craters are so called because they have a small bench lining the interior of the crater wall. This image was released June 5, 2013.
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Moon in 3D: Janssen K Crater
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
This view of the moon shows the vast Janssen K crater in 3D as seen by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. It is a roughly 12-kilometer-diameter crater on the floor of the large Janssen Crater. Image released Sept. 25, 2012. [
Full Story]
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Incredible, Shrinking Moon Revealed in Photos
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University/Smithsonian [Full Story]
In a particularly dramatic example, a thrust fault pushed crustal materials (arrows) up the side of the farside impact crater named Gregory (2.1 degrees N, 128.1 degrees E). By mapping the distribution and determining the size of all lobate scarps, the tectonic and thermal history of the Moon can be reconstructed over the past billion years.
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Moon's Aristarchus Crater
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
This photo taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) shows high sunlight reflecting off the moon's Aristarchus crater.
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Moon in 3D: LRO Sees Korolev Lobate Scarp
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
This new 3D image of the moon was created by using images of the same spot of the lunar surface taken from different angles by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. It shows the Korolev lobate scarp, a type of cliff mostly found in the moon's highlands. Image released Sept. 25, 2012. [
Full Story]
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Apollo 17 Moon Landing Site Seen by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
Credit: NASA/Goddard/ASU
The twists and turns of the last tracks left by humans on the moon crisscross the surface in this LRO image of the Apollo 17 site. In the thin lunar soil, the trails made by astronauts on foot can be easily distinguished from the dual tracks left by the lunar roving vehicle, or LRV. Also seen in this image are the descent stage of the Challenger lunar module and the LRV, parked to the east.
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Shadows on the Moon's Tycho Crater
Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University
Sunrise shadows on the moon's Tycho crater, as seen by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter on June 10, 2011. NASA released the photo on June 30.
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Apollo 14 Landing Site
Credit: NASA/Goddard/ASU
The paths left by astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell on both Apollo 14 moon walks are visible in this LRO image. (At the end of the second moon walk, Shepard famously hit two golf balls.) The descent stage of the lunar module Antares is also visible.
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Apollo 12 Landing Site
Credit: NASA/Goddard/ASU
The tracks made in 1969 by astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean, the third and fourth humans to walk on the moon, can be seen in this LRO image of the Apollo 12 site. The location of the descent stage for Apollo 12's lunar module, Intrepid, also can be seen.
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LRO topographic map of moon, June 2011
Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Science Visualization Studio
This image shows a comparison of the detail of a 2005 global moon elevation map (left) and one generated by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2010. NASA released this image on June 21, 2011.
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Resolution Comparison Between Nominal Orbit Images of the Apollo 17 landing site and the New Low Orbit Image
Credit: NASA/Goddard/ASU
Resolution comparison between nominal orbit images of the Apollo 17 landing site and the new low orbit image.
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Rover Lunokhod
Credit: NASA
NASA's LRO recently discovered the Russian Robotic rover Lunokhod 1 that landed on the moon in 1970 and vanished from detection in September 1971.
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LRO shows natural bridge on moon
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped this shot of a natural bridge on the moon. It's about 7 meters wide on top and 20 m across, and likely formed following the dual collapse of a lava tube. The ground at the base of the bridge is about 6 to 12 meters below the surface. North is up.
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LRO view of far side of the moon
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
This image, taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft, is the most detailed view of the moon's far side to date.
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The Moon Sees Green
Credit: NASA/GSFC/MIT/SV
A topographic map of the moon, centered on the Apollo 15 landing site, highlighting the Apennine and Caucasus ranges and the fairly subtle wrinkling in Serenitatis. The false colors indicate elevation: red areas are highest and blue lowest. The map was created by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credit: NASA/GSFC/MIT/SVS.
Full story.
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LRO Moon Slope Map
Credit: Journal of Geophysical Research (via NASA)
The colors in this image reveal information about the slope and roughness of the moon's surface.
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Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter: Searching For A 'New Moon'
Credit: NASA/GSFC
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is kick-starting a volley of robot craft that will explore the Moon prior to a human return. Image
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LOLA Data of the Moon
Credit: NASA/LRO/LOLA Science Team
LOLA data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter shows three complementary views of the near side of the moon: the topography (left) along with new maps of the surface slope values (middle) and the roughness of the topography (right). All three views are centered on the relatively young impact crater Tycho, with the Orientale basin on the left side.
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New Photos Reveal Apollo 11 at First Moon Landing Site
Credit: NASA/GSFC/ASU
In this image, the Apollo 11 lunar lander and it shadow can be seen in a view from NASA's new Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is scouting the moon for new landing sites for future astronauts.
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Moon Craters Could Be Coldest Place in Solar System
Credit: NASA/UCLA
This image shows daytime (left) and nighttime lunar temperatures in Kelvin recorded by the Diviner instrument on NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in new images released Sept. 17, 2009.
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Rocket Launches New U.S. Moon Probes
NASA's LRO and LCROSS moon probes blast off atop an Atlas 5 rocket in this June 18, 2009 image to begin NASA's lunar return. This image was taken as the ULA rocket launched from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
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Far Side of the Moon Explained
This graphic (not to scale) shows that the moon's crust is thickest on the central far side, and becomes thinner towards the north pole in a manner described with a simple math formula. The highlands appear to have formed early in the moon's history, when a magma ocean, shaped by tides caused by Earth's gravity, heated the moon's floating crust non-uniformly. Since then, the magma ocean has solidified.
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New Moon Orbiter Sends First Lunar Snapshots
Credit: NASA/GSFC/ASU
Cratered regions near the moon's Mare Nubium region, as photographed by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's LROC instrument, in a region 1,400 meters (0.87 miles) wide.
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Moon’s South Pole Gets Close-Up in Restored Photos
Credit: LOIRC
Lunar Orbiter IV took this photo of the moon's south pole in May of 1967. It has been digitized and restored through the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project. For more images like this one, please visit the project's Web site,
Moonviews.com.
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Two NASA Moon Probes Head to Launch Site
Credit: NASA
The truck that is driving LRO to Florida left the Goddard Space Flight Center before dawn to avoid as much traffic as possible.
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New Moon Photo Reveals Tracks from Tough Apollo Moonwalk
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University.
This annotated figure shows the positions of various landmarks surrounding the Apollo 14 landing site on the moon's Fra Mauro highlands as seen by the LRO spacecraft. The small white arrows highlight locations where the astronauts' path can be clearly seen.
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Water on the Moon?
Credit: NASA/Roger Arno
Artist's rendition of Centaur upper stage rocket approaching the moon with the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), "shepherding satellite," attached.
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Water Discovered in Moon Samples
Credit: NASA
Researchers led by Brown geologist Alberto Saal analyzed lunar volcanic glasses, such these gathered by the Apollo 15 mission, and used a new analytic technique to detect water. The discovery strongly suggests that water has been a part of the Moon since its early existence – and perhaps since it was first created.
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Lazy Boulders in Scaliger Crater
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
An assortment of boulder trails decorate the floor of Scaliger crater in the southern farside highlands. Image released Feb. 26, 2013.
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New Images Dampen Hope for Water Ice on Moon
Credit: D. Campbell (Cornell), B. Campbell and L. Carter (Smithsonian)
This is a radar image of the south pole region of the moon showing Shackleton crater and Shoemaker crater where the Lunar Prospector orbiter was impacted into. The south pole is about on the center of the left rim.
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Crater on the Moon Gets Stunning Close-Up
Credit: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University
LRO image of Tycho crater. The proposed Constellation site is to the North of the crater's central peak.
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New Photo of Earth Taken From the Moon
Credit: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University
The Earth as seen from the moon on June 12, 2010 is the subject of this photo from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, a mosaic taken during a calibration sequence.
Full Story.
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Where the Sun Doesn't Shine
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State Univ./Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
Tuesday, April 26, 2011: The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter created this image of the moon's south pole, showing shapes reminiscent of cosmic ice or clouds. Not a single photograph, the image combines 1,700 images collected over 6 lunar days (6 Earth months) into a multi-temporal illumination map. Analyzing the digitized images, each pixel in the map represents the percentage of time each spot on the moon's surface was illuminated by the sun. Since the moon's spin axis remains almost perpindicular to the ecliptic plane, some areas near the lunar poles can stay in permanent darkness or nearly continuous sunlight. The Shackleton Crater lies at near the center of the map.
—Tom Chao
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Moon Crater Has More Water Than Parts of Earth
Credit: Science/AAAS
An image of debris, ejected from the moon's Cabeus crater and into the sunlight, about 20 seconds after the Centaur rocket's impact. The inset shows a close-up with the direction of the sun and the Earth.
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It's Official: Water Found on the Moon
Credit: University of Maryland/F. Merlin/McREL
An illustration showing the stream of charged hydrogen ions carried from the sun to the moon by the solar wind. Scientists think this process might explain the possible presence of hydroxyl or water on the moon.
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Back to the Moon: NASA to Launch New Lunar Scouts
Credit: Pat Corkery/ULA.
A ULA Atlas 5 rocket carrying NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellites (LRO/LCROSS) rolls out from its Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex-41, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., to its launch pad for a June 18, 2009 launch.
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On Being Selected as an LROC Participating Scientist
Credit: NASA
This image shows a 2007 conceptual design for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).
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West Wall of Moon's Aristarchus Crater
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
The west wall of the moon's Aristarchus crater seen obliquely by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) from an altitude of only 16 miles (26 km).
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Low Reflectance Deposits on the Lassell Massif
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
Low reflectance deposits are seen along the margins of Lassell G and Lassell K. Image released March 14, 2013.
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Cinder Cone, Impact Crater, or Something Else?
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
A circular feature piques curiosity and encourages speculation. Image released March 13, 2013.
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Not Your Average Crater
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
An asymmetric impact crater on the Lassell Massif revealing low reflectance material. Image released March 13, 2013.
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Rümker E Impact Melt
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
Impact melt deposit in the crater Rümker E. Image released March 8, 2013.
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Wrinkle Ridge vs. Impact Crater
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
An impact crater modified by a wrinkle ridge. Image released March 6, 2013.
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Copernicus Collapse
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
Collapse feature in the impact melt within the floor of Copernicus crater. Image released March 5, 2013.
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New Views of the Gruithuisen Domes
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
An oblique view of the northern portion of the Gruithuisen Gamma volcanic dome. Image released March 4, 2013.
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Lobate Debris Aprons on the Moon?
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
Debris flows mantle the floor of an unnamed highland crater. Image released Feb. 28, 2013.
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Schiaparelli E
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
A recent impact in Oceanus Procellarum produced a spectacular, circular melt pond. Image released Feb. 27, 2013.
