Lunar Beauty

Bright crater seen from directly above, with rays of ejected lunar surface material extending in all directions.
NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
CreditNASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
Historical DateNovember 3, 2018
Language
  • english

When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the Moon during Apollo 11 in July 1969, he radioed to Earth that the landscape around him had "a stark beauty all its own." The whole Moon is like that. As proof, we offer this bright, young ray impact crater blasted in the eroded wall of the partly buried crater Hedin. It is distant from the starkly beautiful landscape Armstrong saw: the Apollo 11 landing site on Mare Tranquillitatis is more than 1000 kilometers to the east.

The unnamed crater, just over a mile (1.8 kilometers) across, is too small to see from Earth with unaided eyes.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera imaged this crater on Nov. 3, 2018. The Sun shone from the west (left). This image covers an area about five miles (8.1 kilometers) across.

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