NASA LRO snaps some hellish pixs of Moon

By William Atkins
Friday, 03 July 2009 17:57

Science - Space

NASA announced on July 2, 2009, that the first images of the Moon have been returned by its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The LRO Camera took the pictures near Hell E crater.


The LRO Camera (LROC) is actually two cameras: a low-resolution Wide Angle Camera (WAC) and a high-resolution Narrow Angle Camera (NAC).

According to the NASA press release NASA’s LRO spacecraft sends first lunar images to Earth, “The cameras are working well and have returned images of a region a few kilometers east of Hell E crater in the lunar highlands south of Mare Nubium.”

Mare Nubrium, or “sea of clouds” is a lunar mare (or, large, dark-looking basaltic plains on the Moon's surface formed by eruptions of volcanos long ago in its past) on the near-side of the Moon. It is located southeast of Oceanus Procellarum.

The Hell E crater is located in the southern part of the Mare Nubrium, within the western part of the lunar plain Deslandres.

The 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) wide crater is quasi-circular, with an outward bulge along the western rim. Its unevenly surfaced floor is rolling, with a low but prominent central mound, narrow inner wall, and a sharply edged rim.

Hell E crater is at 34.5 degrees South latitude and 6.1 degrees West longitude. It falls about 2.2 kilometers (1.4 miles) from rim to floor.

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