The test of a powerful new space imaging instrument has provided us with a glorious and detailed new perspective on the landing site of the Apollo Moon 15.
By blowing a powerful radar signal from the lunar surface, the new instrument has been able to achieve spectacular resolution, displaying objects up to 5 meters (16.4 feet).
Designed for the West Virginia Green Bank Telescope by Raytheon Intelligence & Space, this concept test technology paves the way for an even more powerful radar image in the future, possibly allowing scientists to study objects even as far away as Neptune. .
However, the radar image of the Moon is not a new idea. It is an extraordinarily useful tool for revealing fine structures on the surface and, at longer wavelengths, even probing more than 10 meters below the surface to observe variations in the density of the regolith (here on Earth, this technology can help us find buried ruins).
But the Green Bank Observatory, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and Raytheon Intelligence & Space are trying to push the technology even further.
(Sophia Dagnello, NRAO / GBO / Raytheon / AUI / NSF / USGS)
In a test conducted in November last year, the new transmitter sent a radar signal to the Moon, aimed specifically at the landing site of Apollo 15, a small piece of the Moon, on a disk of 3,474, 2 kilometers (2,158.8 miles) in diameter, hundreds of thousands of miles away.
This signal, when it bounced, was picked up by the very long database. This is a collection of radio telescopes across the US, which basically combine to create a continental-sized collector plate.
The following image is the result. This divot in the upper center is a crater called Hadley C, about 6 miles in diameter. Passing by snake, is the Hadley Rille, which is believed to have been a collapsed lava tube.
(NRAO / GBO / Raytheon / NSF / AUI)
Believe it or not, though, not even half. Now that they have successfully demonstrated the concept, the team will work on an even more powerful transmitter: a high-power 500-kilowatt radar system that will allow them to see even more incredible detail.
This tool would be useful for all kinds of sciences. We could see our Moon more closely, for sure. We could see moons from other planets. It could even be used to imagine asteroids and space debris, too faint to see through optical telescopes, but which we can probe using radar technology.
This could help us better understand the population of objects – both natural and anthropogenic – in space close to Earth, which in turn could help planetary defense against potentially dangerous objects.
“The planned system will be a leap forward in radar science, allowing access to features of the solar system never seen from here on Earth,” said site director Karen O’Neil of the Observatory of the Green Bank.
And if it makes us even more amazing images of the Moon, we’re so here to get it.