This is a still image taken out from the first moving image shooting when the KAGUYA flew from the northern area of the Oceanus Procellarum to the centre of the North Pole
This is a still image taken out from the first moving image shooting when the KAGUYA flew from the northern area of the Oceanus Procellarum to the centre of the North Pole. As the altitude near the North Pole is high, the angle of the coming sunlight was lower, thus the shade of the crater topography looks long in the image. The moving image was taken at 4:07 AM on 31 October 2007 (JST) by eight-fold speed intermittent shooting (eight minutes is converged to one minute) from the KAGUYA, and the data was received at the JAXA Usuda Deep Space Centre on the same day. (c) JAXA, NHK
Where am I? > Home > News > Astronomy
Tags: KAGUYA, lunar, Moon

First HDTV images of the Moon

Science Centric | 7 November 2007 11:12 GMT
Printable version A clip for your blog or website E-mail the story to a friend
Bookmark or share the story on your social network Vote for this article Leave a comment Decrease text size Increase text size
DON'T MISS —
Ghostly 'spokes' puff out from Saturn's ring's
Ghostly 'spokes' puff out from Saturn's ring's — [15 Nov 2009] — Massive, bright clouds of tiny ice particles hover above the darkened rings of Saturn in an image captured by the Cassini...
Exoplanets clue to sun's curious chemistry
Exoplanets clue to sun's curious chemistry — [12 Nov 2009] — 'For almost 10 years we have tried to find out what distinguishes stars with planetary systems from their barren cousins,'...
Opening up a colourful cosmic jewel box
Opening up a colourful cosmic jewel box — [29 Oct 2009] — Star clusters are among the most visually alluring and astrophysically fascinating objects in the sky. One of the most spectacular...
32 new exoplanets found
32 new exoplanets found — [20 Oct 2009] — 'HARPS is a unique, extremely high precision instrument that is ideal for discovering alien worlds,' says Stephane Udry,...
More Astronomy...

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) have successfully performed the world's first high-definition image taking by the lunar explorer 'KAGUYA' (SELENE), which was injected into a lunar orbit at an altitude of about 100 km on 18 October 2007 (Japan Standard Time).

The image shooting was carried out by the onboard high definition television (HDTV) of the KAGUYA, and it is the world's first high definition image data acquisition of the Moon from an altitude about 100 kilometers away from the Moon.

The image taking was performed twice on 31 October. Both were eight-fold speed intermittent shooting (eight minutes is converged to one minute). The first shooting covered from the northern area of the Oceanus Procellarum toward the centre of the North Pole, then the second one was from the south to the north on the western side of the Oceanus Procellarum. The moving image data acquired by the KAGUYA was received at the JAXA Usuda Deep Space Centre, and processed by NHK.

The satellite was confirmed to be in good health through telemetry data received at the Usuda station.

Source: JAXA

This image shows an artist's conception of the bubble around our solar system moving through the interstellar medium, the matter that fills the local region of our galaxy. New observations from the Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn suggest the shape resembles something like a slippery ball moving through smoke, (c) NASA/JPL-Caltech/JHUAPLCassini data help redraw shape of solar system

— 16 October 2009

Images from the Ion and Neutral Camera on NASA's Cassini spacecraft suggest that the heliosphere, the region of the sun's influence, may not have the comet-like shape predicted by existing... — full story

Astronomers obtained this portrait of Barnard's Galaxy using the Wide Field Imager attached to the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in northern Chile. Also known as NGC 6822, this dwarf irregular galaxy is one of the Milky Way's galactic neighbours. The dwarf galaxy has no shortage of stellar splendour and pyrotechnics. Reddish nebulae in this image reveal regions of active star formation, wherein young, hot stars heat up nearby gas clouds. Also prominent in the upper left of this new image is a striking bubble-shaped nebula. At the nebula's centre, a clutch of massive, scorching stars send waves of matter smashing into surrounding interstellar material, generating a glowing structure that appears ring-like from our perspective. Other similar ripples of heated matter thrown out by feisty young stars are dotted across Barnard's Galaxy, (c) ESOThe Milky Way's tiny but tough galactic neighbour

— 14 October 2009

In the new ESO image, Barnard's Galaxy glows beneath a sea of foreground stars in the direction of the constellation of Sagittarius (the Archer). At the relatively close distance of... — full story

Not surprisingly, interacting galaxies have a dramatic effect on each other. Studies have revealed that as galaxies approach one another massive amounts of gas are pulled from each galaxy towards the centre of the other, until ultimately, the two merge into one massive galaxy. NGC 2623 is in the late stages of the merging process, with the centres of the original galaxy pair now merged into one nucleus, but stretching out from the centre are two tidal tails of young stars, a strong indicator that a merger has taken place. During such a collision, the dramatic exchange of mass and gases initiates star formation, seen here in both the tails. The prominent lower tail is richly populated with bright star clusters - 100 of them have been found in these observations. These star clusters may have formed as part of a loop of stretched material associated with the northern tail, or they may have formed from debris falling back onto the nucleus. In addition to this active star-forming region, both galactic arms harbour very young stars in the early stages of their evolutionary journey, (c) NASA, ESA and A. Evans (Stony Brook University, New York)Sky merger yields sparkling dividends

— 13 October 2009

A recent NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image captures what appears to be one very bright and bizarre galaxy, but is actually the result of a pair of spiral galaxies that resemble... — full story

This artist's conception shows a nearly invisible ring around Saturn - the largest of the giant planet's many rings. It was discovered by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, (c) NASA, JPL-Caltech, KeckSpitzer discovers an enormous ring around Saturn

— 8 October 2009

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered an enormous ring around Saturn - by far the largest of the giant planet's many rings. The new belt lies at the far reaches of the Saturnian... — full story


Popular tags in Astronomy: Cassini · galaxies · Hubble · Mars