SMART-1: the Moon from ESA |
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Zucchius Crater73 visteThis image of the central peaks of crater Zucchius was obtained by AMIE on 14 January 2006 from a distance of about 753 kilometres from the surface, with a ground resolution of 68 metres per pixel.
The imaged area is centred at a latitude of 61.3° South and longitude 50.8° West. Zucchius is a prominent lunar impact crater located near the southwest limb. It is 66 kilometres in diameter, but due to SMART-1's proximity to the surface, the AMIE field of view covers only the central 35 kilometres of the crater in this image.
Because of its location, the crater appears oblong-shaped due to foreshortening. It lies just to the south-southwest of the Segner crater, and northeast of the much larger Bailly walled-plain. To the southeast is the Bettinus crater, a formation only slightly larger than Zucchius.
Zucchius formed in the Copernican era, a period in the lunar planetary history that goes from 1200 million years ago to present times. Another example of craters from this period are Copernicus (about 800 milion years old) and Tycho (100 million years old). Craters from the Copernican era show characteristic ejecta ray patterns - as craters age, ejecta rays darken due to weathering by the flowing solar wind.
The hills near the centre of the image are the central peaks of the crater, features that form in large craters on the Moon. This type of feature is formed by the impact of a small asteroid onto the lunar surface. The surface is molten and, similarly to when a drop of water falls into a full cup of coffee, the hit surface bounces back and solidifies into the central peak.
The Zucchius crater is named after the Italian Mathematician and astronomer Niccolo Zucchi (1586-1670).
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What the Moon is made of...According to SMART-1123 visteUna premessa necessaria: il giorno 15.01.2005 una possente eruzione solare (solar flare) ha investito la Luna. Le particelle provenienti dal Sole, abbattendosi sul nostro Satellite, hanno interagito con la sua superficie ed i suoi elementi.
L'output globale di questa interazione è stato registrato da SMART-1 usando lo spettrografo D-CIXS.
"Top Left: GOES X-ray spectrum showing the Solar input. Note the flares around 06:00 UT on 15 January 2005 (GOES Data Courtesy NOAA).
Lower Left: D-CIXS spectrograms showing fluorescence emission from the Moon as a response. The 3 panels show the summed outputs of the 3 separate D-CIXS facets.
Top Right: Area of the Moon overflown during this observation, running from 15° to 45° North, at 60° East long., including Mare Crisium in the southern part of the region.
Bottom Right: The derived X-ray spectrum, indicating lunar elemental composition. Note the prominent Calcium feature, as well as visible Aluminium, Silicon and Iron".
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Waning Earth, from SMART-183 visteTerra "calante", vista dallo Spazio: ecco una serie di spettacolari fotogrammi ad HD che provengono dalla Sonda ESA "SMART-1". Tra i compiti maggiori di questa piccola Sonda c'è, a detta del Centro Controllo Missione, quello di fornire una mappatura ultra-dettagliata della superficie Lunare, alla ricerca di qualche "posto buono" per la creazione di insediamenti umani permanenti (o, se preferite, di "Colonie Lunari").
I "picchi della Luce Eterna", ad esempio (un'espressione davvero suggestiva per indicare alcune zone della Luna, situate a ridosso dei Poli, le quali potrebbero essere perennemente illuminate dalla luce del Sole), fanno parte dei posti (teoricamente) buoni per pensare ad un insediamento permanente efficace.
E per il sostentamento?
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The Spectacular Crater Plaskett17 visteCaption ESA:"This image, taken by the Advanced Moon Imaging Experiment (AMIE) on board ESA's SMART-1 spacecraft, shows crater Plaskett on the Moon.
This image was taken by SMART-1 from its polar orbit, at an altitude of 3000 Km over the surface and with a ground resolution of 300 mt per pixel.
Plaskett crater sits at 82,1° North and 174,0° East, with its centre just 240 Km away from the Lunar North Pole.
The crater, about 109 Km across, is named after the Canadian astronomer John Stanley Plaskett (1865–1941)".
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The Moon, from 600.000 and 60.000 Km!69 visteLa Luna: non ci siamo dimenticati della Luna, anzi! Da oggi, 26 Aprile 2005, inizieremo a raccontarVi la "Luna Dimenticata" (o quasi...) attraverso le immagini che ci arrivano dalla Sonda ESA SMART-1.
Individueremo nuove "Singolarità"?
Incontreremo nuovi enigmi?
La Luna è davvero (e solo) "...del padiglion del ciel, la Gran Frittata..."?!?
Staremo a vedere...
Caption ESA originale."These 2 images show the Moon as seen by SMART-1 during the approach phase. The image on the left was taken on 28 October 2004, at a distance of about 600.000 Km from the Moon, when the spacecraft was in its last orbit around the Earth. The image on the right was taken on 12 November 2004, about 15 days later, at a distance of about 60.000 Km. At that time, the Moon was facing the Earth with its unlit side (new Moon).
The slightly illuminated part at the top of the Moon (right image) shows a 'slice' of the Moon's far side at about the latitude of the Lunar North Pole. The North Pole far side is seen for the first time by a European spacecraft, and only for the second time in the history of lunar exploration".
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The Moon from SMART-1: a little geography74 visteCaption ESA originale:"On 29 January 2004, between 20:00 and 21:19 UT, images of the first quarter moon were taken through several filters by the AMIE instrument. The result is a small, but impressive, image revealing, clockwise from the top: Mare Serenitatis, Mare Tranquillitatis, Mare Fecunditatis and Mare Nectaris, with Mare Crisium also visible near the limb".
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The Lunar North Pole (2)61 visteCaption ESA originale:"(...) This picture is valuable as it shows illumination conditions at the Region. It is important to understand global illumination conditions to help in planning the location of future landing sites and, later, possible bases on the Moon".
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The Lunar North Pole (1)48 visteUna bellissima coppia di immagini ad Alta Risoluzione dell'area Nord Polare della Luna, alla ricerca - ancora una volta - dei "Picchi della Luce Eterna" (anche se poi, come già avemmo occasione di dire in passato) si dovrebbe trattare non di picchi (nel senso di porzioni superiori di montagne appuntite), bensì di altopiani.
Comunque sia, queste Regioni della "Luce Eterna" esistono, sappiamo dove sono e, forse, costituiranno davvero un punto di partenza verso la costituzione di un avamposto Lunare permanente.
Staremo a vedere...
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The Lunar Limb, from 600 Km35 vistenessun commento
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The Lunar Alps88 visteOriginal caption:"The European Alps were formed over millions of years by slow-moving sections of Earth’s crust pushed together, squeezing the land to form a giant arc of upthrust mountains, but the Lunar Alps were formed in an instant. It is thought that the Moon collided with a huge object, such as an asteroid, 3850 million years ago. The collision formed a huge crater, about 1000 Km in diameter. This crater was later filled with basaltic lava, forming the dark circular basin known as Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains). After the explosive collision, fragments, rocks and dust fell back to the surface. While there is considerable debate as to the actual mechanism which formed the concentric rings, it is agreed they are not 'fallback' material. Some scientists argue that the the impact caused the lower layers to act as a liquid and that the rings then 'froze' in place. A flood of lava covered the lower inner one, but the outer one remains as a series of arc-shaped mountain ranges.
In places these mountains rise over 3000 metres. Their inner walls are steep and well defined, but their outer slopes become more broken as elevation decreases away from the impact site. Early European astronomers named them after familiar mountain ranges, such as the Juras, the Apennines and the Alps.
Seen in this image, Vallis Alpes (Alpine Valley) is a spectacular feature that bisects the Montes Alpes range. This valley was discovered in 1727 by Francesco Bianchini. It extends 166 kilometres from Mare Imbrium, trending north-east to the edge of the Mare Frigoris (Sea of Cold). The valley is narrow at both ends and widens to about 10 kilometres across.
The valley floor is a flat, lava-flooded surface that has narrow sinous ‘rille’ running down the middle. It is generally considered to be a 'graben', an area between two parallel faults which has dropped below the surrounding area. This is believed to have formed after the formation of the basin, but before the full maria lava flows. The rille corresponds to a ‘lava tube’ formed in a later geological episode by high-speed and low viscosity magma.
"SMART-1 is studying the signature of violent processes that took place during the formation of these giant impact basins, as well as the sequence of late volcanic history over the lunar surface until 3000 million years ago,” said ESA’s SMART-1 Project Scientist Bernard Foing.
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The Impact Sequence39 visteCaption ESA originale:"Analysis of images obtained at the CFHT by Christian Veillet have revealed a plume of debris thrown up when SMART-1 impacted the Lunar Surface.
The observations were made with the WIRCam wide-field infrared camera with 10s exposure time through an H2 narrow-band filter at 2122 nanometers with a 32 nanometers bandwidth.
Each image is approximately 2'x 2', equating to 200x200 Km".
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The Central "Peak" of Zucchius Crater (HR)78 visteL'immagine, nonostante gli sforzi dell'ESA e nonostante l'Alta Risoluzione, resta mediocremente sfuocata. Tuttavia, sebbene la certezza non la si può avere, riteniamo di poter dire, con un discreto margine di certezza, che esiste un oggetto anomalo proprio sulla sommità (o nei suoi pressi) di una delle collinette che caratterizzano l'area centrale del Cratere Zucchius. L'oggetto (se seguissimo la Scuola di Hoagland potremmo già parlare di "costruzione") pare avere una base rettangolare e, su questa base (e leggermente alla Sx dell'Osservatore) pare esserci un ulteriore rilievo di forma circolare.
Un'immagine brutta, ripetiamo, ma intrigante ed enigmatica. Da studiare.
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