The moon is always stunning. As the research on the moon is gaining momentum now, let’s take a look at the different projects of NASA spacecraft taking pictures of the moon.
Galileo spacecraft
This image of the Moon’s western hemisphere was taken by the Galileo spacecraft on December 7. The image was taken at 9:35 a.m. PST by the Galileo spacecraft from about 350,000 miles away.
At the center of the image is the Orientale Basin, a 600-mile-wide impact crater formed by an asteroid-sized object about 3.8 billion years ago.
The image was taken by the Galileo spacecraft in December 1992. The spacecraft was launched by NASA in 1995-97 to explore the Jupiter system.
Clementine Spaceship
The image, taken by the Clementine spacecraft, shows the glow caused by light reflected from Earth. Therefore, it is not wrong to say that the moon is bright because of the light of the earth.
The glowing lunar horizon is the result of the solar corona and the Sun is behind the Sun. The planet Venus was also captured in this image.
Mariner 10
Mariner 10 imaged the Earth and Moon together from a distance of 2.6 million km, while being the first spacecraft capable of providing high-resolution digital color image data.
The Mariner 10 program is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA’s Office of Space Science.
This photo is evidence of the first successful surveyor mission to make a successful soft landing.
Lunar Orbiter 2
The Lunar Orbiter 2 image was taken by Lunar Orbiter 2, whose mission is to study the Copernicus Crater on the Moon. The craters in it were photographed.
A crater wall shows collapse caused by soil liquefaction following the impact that created the crater. The crater is about 100 km in diameter.
Trigo groove
Recently, on June 10, 2021, NASA’s Lunar reconnaissance orbiter captured a sunrise view of the Moon’s Trigo Crater.
