Tycho Thursday: ASU Releases Stunning Tycho Crater Imagery

(Before It's News)

http://www.dearastronomer.com/

Oblique view of summit area of Tycho crater central peak. The boulder in the background is 120 meters wide, and the image is about 1200 meters wide. Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
Click for larger view.

Yesterday, the LROC Team at Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Space Exploration released an incredible high-resolution image of one of the Moon’s most prominent impact craters, Tycho. The image was taken with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) on June 10th by slewing the LRO spacecraft 65° to the west, which allowed the LROC “narrow angle” camera to capture the dramatic sunrise view of Tycho crater.

From the press release:
“We planned the image because it would dramatically show the geologic relations from a more human perspective. Drama we got!” says Mark Robinson, a professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at ASU. “When I first saw the reconstructed image all I could think was what it would be like to be on the first mission to Tycho. Imagine coming in for a landing within this geologic wonderland! When can we go?”

Robinson also adds at the LROC Blog: “Tycho’s features are so steep and sharp because the crater is young by lunar standards, only about 110 million years old. Over time, micrometeorites, and not so micro meteorites, will grind and erode these steep slopes into smooth mountains.“

Named after 16th century Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, the crater is very popular with amateur astronomers. The crater’s popularity is due, in part, to its visibility when the Moon is full and because it is surrounded by a distinctive dark halo and radiating bright rays. Measuring roughly 80km in diameter, Tycho is located in the southern highlands at 43.37°S, 348.68°E. The summit of the central peak is 2km above the crater floor and the crater floor is about 4.7km below the rim.

Narrow Angle Camera oblique view of Tycho crater. The central peak complex is about 15 km wide southeast to northwest (left to right in this view) Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

If you’d like to learn more about LROC, you can visit their site at: http://lroc.sese.asu.edu

You can view LROC’s Featured Image of the Day site for more photos and video of Tycho.

Source:ASU/SESE/LROC Press Release, LROC Featured Image of the Day site.

Ray Sanders is a Sci-Fi geek, astronomer and blogger. Currently researching variable stars at Arizona State University, he writes for Universe Today, The Planetary Society blog, and his own blog, Dear Astronomer

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