LRO's First Photos of the Moon
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) recently sent back its first photos of the moon, which you can see over at Bad Astronomy. What’s remarkable is how good the resolution on the photos is:
This image, taken in the Mare Nubium region of the Moon, shows a heavily cratered area. The scale here is amazing: the whole image is 1400 meters across, or just under a mile. That’s like looking out your airplane window… if you were over the frakking Moon!
When LRO settles into its final orbit, it will be able to resolve objects only 18 inches across. I can’t wait to see the shots of the Apollo landing sites (which I mentioned earlier).