Moon Map: NASA LRO Creates High-Resolution Topographic Map Of The Moon (PHOTO)

Prepare yourself to see the moon like you've never seen it before.

A team of scientists at Arizona State University in Tempe has used a wide-angle camera aboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to create what the space agency says is "the highest-resolution near-global topographic map of the moon ever created."

And the results are absolutely stunning.

SCROLL DOWN FOR IMAGE

"I can't tell you how excited I am about this data product," Mark S. Robinson, the principal investigator of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) told HuffPost. "All of these people worked so hard together to get this topographic map completed."

The image below, which is one of many available for download, is a topographical map of the entire far side of the moon. The colors represent the elevation of various features on the moon's surface, with the highest areas (10,700 meters, or about 35,000 feet high) shown in white, and the deepest basins (around 9,150 meters or 30,000 feet below) shaded violet.

Each pixel on the map, which is called the Global Lunar DTM 100 m topographic model (GLD100), represents 100 meters (328 feet) of the moon.

"We can now determine slopes of all major geologic terrains on the moon at 100 meter scale," Robinson said in a NASA statement. "Determine how the crust has deformed, better understand impact crater mechanics, investigate the nature of volcanic features, and better plan future robotic and human missions to the moon."

It took more than three years to design and build the Wide Angle Camera (WAC) and get it to the moon aboard the LRO. The WAC then spent a year collecting data, and it took another year of work for a team to compile the data to build the model.

"It's what the science community has wanted ever since the Apollo days," Robinson told HuffPost. "It just opens up so many avenues of research."

The LRO orbits the moon about 13 times per day, taking roughly 200 images. It takes a month for the WAC to map the entire moon.

If you're impressed with this image, you'll most likely be blown away by the map that comes out next year. Robinson said that the WAC is currently taking even more pictures, which will allow for an even more detailed version of the map.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft launched on June 18, 2009 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

LOOK: Color Shaded Relief of the Lunar Far Side, From the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Wide Angle Camera:

Comments

[westreal]

11:28 PM on 12/08/2012

Tagged

[VoteEarlyVoteOften]

04:30 PM on 11/21/2011

this is completely without value. I am so tired of NASA throwing good money away on projects that have no relevance to the immediate problems that we face on Earth.

If these people can't do or produce something useful then the money should be spent elsewhere on alternate energy research, micromanufacturing techniques etc. Or just give free engineering educations to 25,000 US citizens every year

[Silence Dogoody]

03:43 PM on 11/21/2011

Too bad Obama cancelled the moon program this was designed for.

[Andy Rod]

02:37 PM on 11/19/2011

We have to be careful of what NASA releases to the public, though the
optics of the LRO may be some of the best in the world, NASA may also
employ some of the best photoshop artists in the world. So we see only
what they want us to see. Technically speaking NASA isn't doing science,
if we cannot independently verify the accuracy of the images with our
own moon satellites and moon rovers then, according to the traditional
view of science, the data they provide cannot be counted as scientific.

Go to youtube and do a search for lunacognita, his videos show some of the best examples of Moon image editing.

[Andy Rod]

02:34 PM on 11/19/2011

We have to be careful of what NASA releases to the public, though the optics of the LRO may be some of the best in the world, NASA may also employ some of the best photoshop artists in the world. So we see only what they want us to see. Technically speaking NASA isn't doing science, if we cannot independently verify the accuracy of the images with our own moon satellites and moon rovers then, according to the traditional view of science, the data they provide cannot be counted as scientific.

Consider these two images:

AS16-118-18873:

NASA website 1:

Note the white objects near the earth's limb:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/apollo/apollo16/html/as16-118-18873.html

NASA website 2:

Note the white objects are now gone and poorly covered up:

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/imgcat/html/object_page/a16_h_118_18873.html

Many images from the Apollo missions have been altered:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FI_ZFYCIR0

You can look up the images online and verify the image editing for yourself.

I don't blame NASA as a whole for all the coverups, I'm almost certain that secret agencies have much to do with what NASA can and can't do.

[elrenegado]

02:18 PM on 11/19/2011

Do the NASA still thinking we are ignorants? Are people working at the NASA getting some brain trouble? Please tell me it's a fiction they got this picture thanks to my taxes... We were supossed to see a nice and impressive picture of the Moon, no a colored soccer ball... My five years old grandson could make a better drawing of the Moon, with eyes, nose and a big smile!

[dannyconda]

05:25 PM on 11/19/2011

You've got a talented grandson.
He has a fool for a grandparent.

[spacer1966]

04:10 PM on 11/20/2011

LRO has produced many impressive photos of the Moon. Visit http://lunar.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery.html. As stated in the article, the purpose of this one was not optical, but to show elevations graphically (which can not be done with a standard photo).

[VoteEarlyVoteOften]

04:30 PM on 11/21/2011

No need to be an aywhole

[stevewhitenburg]

02:06 PM on 11/19/2011

love NASA an all they do, but also wish they would (or someone would) spend some real time in the oceans of THIS world. WE know more about a few miles out then a few miles deep. What does the deep est part of our oceans look like, WHat kinda life is there?
SO not saying to stop or limit space exploration, but lets also do the oceans

[wmacdaniel]

01:29 PM on 11/19/2011

so cool too bad Obama has cut NASA to Bare bones so it's unlikely we'll ever go back in any of our's life times

[kabookiejoe25]

01:45 PM on 11/19/2011

well if Bush didn't spend trillions on a bs war.. who knows..

[Silence Dogoody]

03:44 PM on 11/21/2011

Obama has spent more than Bush in less than half the time.

[jomac67]

01:10 PM on 11/19/2011

Duh, 3/4 of the Earth's surface is WATER. So we probably don't need any Moon Water. I wasn't impressed with the ''Photo" as I feel I could draw one , just as good or better, using a dinner plate to make a circle and a set of Colored pencils. I do think NASA is a Worthwhile thing. I Did go to Vegas once, but it was After my Bills were paid. The American Indian saying "We were here First", rings hollow to me. More likely , Aliens were here First. Logic tells me, If we can't build the Great Pyramid Today....Primative or Ancient people Couldn't have built them 6 or 10, or 30,000 years ago. (So, I;m Not impressed with the Cartoon )

[rocknhula]

12:57 PM on 11/19/2011

One day Nasa is going to reveal what they know about UFOs, about all the sightings by their people especially around the moon. Guess what folks? They aren't Christians.

[sakovkt]

02:44 PM on 11/19/2011

You're right.

Maybe that's where OWC came from and Obama's BC, as well.

[John J Garzi]

12:30 PM on 11/19/2011

THE MOON LANDINGS WERE FAKED? THE RUSSIANS WOULD BE THE FIRST TO POINT THAT OUT. NASA, IS A WAIST OF MONEY? RESEARCH ALL THE THINGS THAT COME OUT OF THE SPACE PROGRAM (. VELCRO, TEFLON, AND A WHOLE LOT OF COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY TO NAME A FEW). SOME PEOPLE HAVE THEIR HEAD IN THE SAND? YUP, A LOT SURE DO. WHO ARE THEY? O.W.S. AND LaBAMBA LOVERS. NOW THAT'S WHAT WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY !

[majorwiblit]

01:15 PM on 11/19/2011

what an ___hole you are

[John J Garzi]

01:29 PM on 11/19/2011

THANK YOU, YOUR RESPONSE JUST ENFORCES MINE.

[MauiSun]

01:28 PM on 11/19/2011

Sounds like your head is buried in the sand..... What does OWS & Obama have to do with this article? Technology begins with a vision and dream. Those who pursue their visions are the pioneers of todays culture. You don't appear to have much of a vision and your dreams are probably distrubing.

[DA5050]

12:29 PM on 11/19/2011

Love the moon.See all those craters,at least a couple of them could be the reason you're here today.Some of those crater makers could have been ancestor squashers..thank you moon Hahaha..(chuckle and a wink) !!

[bigern1860]

12:27 PM on 11/19/2011

Did you spot those cute, little Moonbugs in the upper RH quadrant ?

[AmosKnows]

12:24 PM on 11/19/2011

Gee I hope they spend a few more hundred billion trying to find some microbe on some far away planet, find it, bring it back here and it wipes us out. Now that would be irony.

[esq1128]

10:54 AM on 11/19/2011

What's next? Europa and Lunar water in plastic bottles. Imagine the transportation costs.