NASA Photo ID: S90-55757           File Name: 10063795.jpg
  Film Type: 4x5 BW                  Date Taken: 12/31/90
  Title: Western hemisphere of the Moon taken by Galileo spacecraft
  Description:
  Galileo spacecraft image of the Moon recorded at 9:35 am Pacific Standard 
  Time (PST), 12-09-90, after completing its first Earth Gravity Assist.  
  Western hemisphere of the Moon was taken through a green filter at a range
  of  about 350,000 miles.  In the center is Orientale Basin, 600 miles in 
  diameter, formed about 3.8 billion years ago by the impact of an 
  asteroid-size body.  Orientale's dark center is a small mare.  To the right 
  is the lunar near side with the great, dark Oceanus Procellarum above the 
  small, circular, dark Mare Humorum below.  Maria are broad plains formed 
  mostly over 3 billion years ago as vast basaltic lava flows.  To the left
  is  the lunar far side with fewer maria, but, at lower left
  South-Pole-Aitken  basin, about 1200 miles in diameter, which resembles
  Orientale but is much  older and more weathered and battered by cratering. 
  The intervening cratered  highlands of both sides, as well as the maria,
  are dotted with bright young  craters.  This image was "reprojected" so as
  to center the Orientale Basin,  and was filtered to enhance the visibility
  of small features.  The digital  image processing was done by DLR, the
  German Aerospace Research Establishment  near Munich, an international
  collaborator in the Galileo mission.  Photo was  provided by Jet Propulsion
  Laboratory (JPL) with alternate number P-37327,  12-19-90.    
  
  Subject terms:
  FLYBY MISSIONS                          
  GALILEO SPACECRAFT                      
  MOON                                    
  

NASA Home Page

JSC Home Page

Imagery Services Home Page

Search