Kaguya beams hi-def images of moons surface back to earth.

Jaxa's Kaguya moon satellite which I reported on here, has returned two hi-definition film clips taken while in orbit at 110km above the moon's surface. The official Jaxa website has the stunning images and movies of the lunar orbiter traversing the equatorial region and also approaching the North pole of the moon.

The image below is taken from the Jaxa website and shows the approach to the moons northern pole. The level of detail as you can see is high, including the contrast between crater walls and surface objects.

The two large craters in this image are Brianchon and Pascal with Hermite towards the pole. This is a fantastic image and really shows the detail of the surface of the moon. In particular the depth of the craters and the long shadows within the floors of the craters.

Technorati Tags: Astronomy , Lunar , kaguya , Japan , JAXA , Moon