PIA00303: East Limb View of Earth's Moon as Seen by the Clementine Spacecraft
Target Name: Moon
Is a satellite of: Earth
Mission: DSPSE
Spacecraft: Clementine 1
Instrument: Ultraviolet/Visible Camera
Product Size: 1719 samples x 1719 lines
Produced By: U.S. Geological Survey
Addition Date: 1998-06-04
Primary Data Set: Clementine EDRs
Full-Res TIFF: PIA00303.tif (2.029 MB)
Full-Res JPEG: PIA00303.jpg (303.8 kB)

Click on the image to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly cropped or reduced in size from original).

Original Caption Released with Image:

About 50,000 Clementine images were processed to produce the four orthographic views of the Moon. Images PIA00302, PIA00303, PIA00304, and PIA00305 show albedo variations (normalized brightness or reflectivity) of the surface at a wavelength of 750 nm (just longward of visible red). The image projection is centered at 0 degree latitude and 90 degrees longitude. The dark albedo features Mare Smythii (image center) and Mare Marginis (above Smythii) are just visible from Earth on the extreme eastern edge of the lunar nearside. Maria Crisium (directly west of Marginis) and Mare Fecuditatis (southwest of Crisium) are familiar nearside features as seen from Earth. Maria regions are believed to be large basins formed by impacts from cosmic projectiles later filled by basaltic lava flows from volcanic eruptions. Basaltic lava flows on the basin floors give maria their dark albedo appearance.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/USGS

Image Addition Date:
1998-06-04