First Moon landing images released
Earlier than I had hoped, the first LROC images of the moon landing sites have been released by NASA. These images were captured before the LRO reached its final mapping orbit, and are at about of a third the resolution of future LROC images. Click on the image below to see the original uncropped image of Eagle sitting in its landing site.
This image of the Apollo 14 landing site is a lot more interesting showing the astronauts actual foot marks.
I think it was marvellous of NASA to release these images before the 40th anniversary of the first landing by Apollo 11.
However, even though these images were taken within the last week, I doubt that the conspiracy theorists will accept this evidence either.
Volcanic eruption filmed from space
More space-based stuff – this time an amazing video of Sarychev Volcano (Kuril Islands, northeast of Japan) in an early stage of eruption on June 12, 2009. It was filmed from the International Space Station.
It’s breathtaking. The speed of the Space Station gives it a full 3-D look. You can see the a pyroclastic flow descending and a vigorously rising eruption plume.
You can find high-resolution images of the same event at NASA’s Earth Observatory site.
First hi-res images of the moon
The first high-resolution images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) have been have been released. The LRO reached the moon on June 23 and the two cameras on board, collectively known as LROC (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera), were activated on June 30.
The images were taken over the region in the lunar highlands south of Mare Nubium (Sea of Clouds).
This image shows a region 1,400 metres wide and features as small as 3 metres wide are discernible. What makes this exciting to me is that this is a very human scale. You can actually imagine yourself walking the short distance, through a museum of craters. The smaller craters would be no bigger than a suburban swimming pool.
I also can’t wait for images from the original landing sites – presumably the tracks left in the sand by the lunar buggy would be visible.
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