The European probe SMART-1 peers into the moon’s Glushko Crater while flying over the lunar surface.

Built for the European Space Agency (ESA), SMART-1 used its Advanced Moon Micro-Imager Experiment (AMIE) to photograph Glushko, a 43-kilometer wide crater visible on the moon’s western limb as seen from Earth.

Astronomers believe the crater is relatively young – astronomically speaking – because of its extremely clear impact features. The crater wall and rim are well defined and unaffected by the erosion from later impacts.

An ejecta blanket surrounds the crater, as do fine radial rays, though mission scientists believe the depth of the ejecta layer does not appear thick enough to overrun nearby lunar features.

Glushko Crater was originally named Olbers A since it is part of the western rim of the Olbers Crater. It was later renamed by the International Astronomical Union to honor the Russian rocket scientist Valentin Petrovich Glushko.

-- SPACE.com Staff

Credit: ESA/Space-X, Space Exploration Institute