NASA's
newest spacecraft in orbit around the moon has sent its first snapshots of the
lunar surface.
Released
Thursday, the images from NASA's new Lunar
Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal a moon bathed in light and shadow in a region
know as Mare Nubium, or the Sea of Clouds. They were taken by a pair of cameras
that make up the orbiter's high-resolution imaging system.
"Our
first images were taken along the moon's terminator - the dividing line between
day and night - making us initially unsure of how they would turn out,"
said Mark Robinson, the principal investigator for the Lunar Reconnaissance
Orbiter Camera (LROC) at the Arizona State University in Tempe.
Two of the
new images were taken from a larger strip of terrain observed by the spacecraft's
LROC eyes. They are NASA's first clear, up-close look at the moon in a decade,
though the orbiter's partner probe beamed home grainy
views from much farther away when both spacecraft arrived at the moon on
June 23. Ultimately, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will build new global
maps of the entire lunar surface as it orbits the moon.
The images
released Thursday show cratered regions that span an area just under a mile (1,400
meters) across. In some parts, the shadows are so dark that surface details are
completely obscured, while in others the stark contrast between night and day
reveal dramatic views of the moon's craters and battered surface.
"Because
of the deep shadowing, subtle topography is exaggerated, suggesting a craggy
and inhospitable
surface," Robinson said. "In reality, the area is similar to the region
where the Apollo 16 astronauts safely explored in 1972. While these are
magnificent in their own right, the main message is that LROC is nearly ready
to begin its mission."
NASA
launched the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and a smaller impactor probe toward
the moon on June 18. The powerful orbiter will seek out potential landing sites
for future astronauts, as well as build new maps of the moon's surface,
temperature extremes and radiation environment. It will also hunt for water ice
in the permanently shadowed craters of the moon's south pole.
The orbiter's
partner craft, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, zipped
around the moon on June 23 and is due to purposely crash into a shadowed crater
on Oct. 9 in the hope of finding definitive proof of water ice. The impactor
probe is attached to a massive, but empty, rocket stage, which it will send
plunging into the crater first, scan the resulting crash and plume for water
ice, then perform its own death dive four minutes later while telescopes in
space and on Earth look on.
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