Scientists have revealed an incredibly detailed image of the lunar surface showing objects up to five meters in diameter, captured with reflected radar signals.
The image, published by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory of America, shows the landing site of NASA’s Apollo 15 mission in 1971 and the toothed grooves and craters surrounding it.
To obtain the image, the researchers used satellites that fired a powerful radar signal to the moon, which was then reflected back into a system of 10 radio telescopes in North America, called the Very Long Baseline Array.
The end result marks a successful preliminary test of the highly complex radio telescope system.
Now, scientists want to develop it even further to capture more detailed images from much deeper of our solar system, including the surfaces of Neptune and Uranus.
New radar image of the landing site of the Apollo 15, located with respect to the outstanding lunar characteristics. Apollo 15 landed in Hadley-Apennine, a region on the near side of the moon, on July 30, 1971.
“The planned system will be a leap forward in radar science, which will provide access to features of the solar system never seen from here on Earth,” said Karen O’Neil, site director of the Green Bank Observatory West Virginia.
The project combines the efforts of the Green Bank Observatory (GBO) of the National Science Foundation, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and Raytheon Intelligence & Space.
GBO’s Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, the world’s largest fully orientable radio telescope, was equipped with a new transmitter developed by Raytheon Intelligence & Space, which allowed it to transmit the radar signal into space.
The very long base matrix (VLBA) of the entire NRAO continent received the signal once reflected from the lunar surface and produced the image.
The image was captured in November last year, but has only been published by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.
GBT-VLBA radar image of the region where Apollo 15 landed in 1971. The characteristic snake is Hadley Rille, a remnant of ancient volcanic activity, probably a collapsed lava tube.
Apollo 15 – NASA, 1971. Apollo 15 astronaut James Irwin uses a ball to dig into the lunar soil in front of Mount Hadley, 1971
Apollo 15 commander Dave Scott greets the American flag at the Hadley-Apennine lunar landing site. The lunar module ‘Falcon’ is partially visible on the right, 1971
The new image shows the Apollo 15 landing site right next to a bleed named Hadley Rille, a remnant of ancient volcanic activity, probably a collapsed lava tube.
The crater at the top, next to the rille, is called Hadley C and is about 6 kilometers in diameter.
Apollo 15 landed in Hadley-Apennine, a region on the near side of the lunar surface, on July 30, 1971.
It was the ninth manned mission on NASA’s Apollo program and the fourth to land on the moon.
The Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, the most fully orientable radio telescope in the world. This telescope is equipped with a new planetary radar transmitter to study objects in the solar system.
Antenna locations of the set of very long baselines across the continent. These antennas serve as locations for receiving the radar signal reflected from the Green Bank telescope
Using the information gathered from this latest test, the scientists will finalize a plan to develop a 500-kilowatt high-power radar system that can imagine objects in the solar system “with unprecedented detail and sensitivity.”
This will allow astronomers to use radar signals as far away as the orbits of Uranus and Neptune, the two outermost planets in our solar system, which reside about 1.6 billion and 2.7 billion kilometers away from our planet, respectively.
“The concept test drive, which culminates a two-year effort, paves the way for designing a more powerful transmitter for the telescope,” NRAO said in a statement.
“More power will allow better detection and imaging of small objects passing through the Earth, moons orbiting other planets and other debris in the solar system.”
WHAT WAS THE APOLLO PROGRAM?
The NASA photo taken on July 16, 1969 shows the huge Apollo 11 Spacecraft 107 / Lunar Module S / Saturn 506 tall spacecraft launched from Pad A, Launch Complex 39. Kennedy Space Center (KSC), at 9:32 am (EDT).
Apollo was NASA’s program that launched in 1961 and reached the first man on the moon eight years later.
The first four flights tested the Apollo Program team and six of the other seven flights managed to land on the moon.
The first manned mission to the moon was Apollo 8, which circled around Christmas Eve 1968, but did not land.
The crew of Apollo 9 spent ten days orbiting the Earth and completed the first manned flight of the lunar module: the section of the Apollo rocket that would later land Neil Armstrong on the moon.
The Apollo 11 mission was the first to land on the moon on July 20, 1969.
The capsule landed in the sea of tranquility, carrying mission commander Neil Armstrong and pilot Buzz Aldrin.
Armstrong and Aldrin walked the lunar surface while Michael Collins remained in orbit around the moon.
When Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon, he said, “This is a small step for a man; a giant leap for humanity.”
Apollo 12 landed later that year on November 19 in the Ocean of Storms, NASA writes.
Apollo 13 was to be the third mission to land on the moon, but just under 56 hours of flight, an oxygen tank explosion forced the crew to cancel the lunar landing and move to Aquarius lunar module to return to Earth.
Apollo 15 was the ninth manned lunar mission in the Apollo space program, and was considered the most successful manned space flight until then due to its long duration and greater emphasis on scientific exploration of what had been possible in previous missions.
Apollo’s last lunar landing occurred in 1972 after a total of 12 astronauts had touched the lunar surface.
Astronaut Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin unpacked lunar module experiments on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission. Photographed by Neil Armstrong, July 20, 1969