Featured Images

Cool Cold Spots

Oblique (very!) view of Einthoven cold spot crater, located at 109.91° E, 6.74° S. White rays and the crater's rocky rim and rugged interior wall are visible signs of youth. The cold spot anomaly surrounding the crater is another sign...

Published on 21 Aug 2018

NAC Anaglyph: Moore F Crater

Moore F is an impact crater in transition. Image width is about eight kilometers. NAC images M125720601L/R and M125713813L/R. [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University]

Published on 09 Aug 2018

Aristarchus Crater

The Aristarchus crater (40 kilometer diameter, 23.73°N, 312.51°E) and plateau is one of the most geologically complex areas on the Moon. In this amazing picture, the LRO spacecraft slewed 62° (west-to-east) looking across the crater....

Published on 04 Aug 2018

NAC Anaglyph: Eimmart A Crater

Eimmart A, partially visible at lower right, has a split personality. Image numbers M1098422839L/R, M1098408548L/R [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

Published on 21 Jul 2018

John Young at South Ray Crater

Overhead view of South Ray crater, the most prominent feature at the Apollo 16 Descartes landing site in the central lunar highlands. Astronaut John Young landed Lunar Module Orion north of the crater on  21 April 1972 (UTC)....

Published on 05 Jul 2018

Self-Inflicted Secondaries?

This portion of an impact melt flow at Aristarchus Crater, centered at 24.6°N, 321.1°E, includes modified small craters and overlapping melt flows. What do the shapes of craters on impact melt and the statistics derived through careful...

Published on 30 Jun 2018

Hell Q Crater

Recent impact craters are some of the most spectacular landforms on the Moon! For example, Hell Q (3.4 kilometers in diameter, 33.0° S, 355.5° E) shows off pristine impact melt that lined the crater walls and pooled in the bottom, now...

Published on 27 May 2018

Hawke Crater

Hawke crater, 13.2 km wide, is noticeably tilted because the impactor - an asteroid or a comet - that excavated it struck the sloping inner wall of Grotrian crater. Visible are light-colored rays that attest to the crater's youth, as...

Published on 03 May 2018

Luminous Pierazzo Crater

The Moon continues to surprise us with its beauty! When did this magnificent crater form? From its pristine state it looks as if it could have formed yesterday, however erosion  proceeds slowly on the Moon. NAC M1265532953LR, scene...

Published on 13 Feb 2018

Zowie!

Looking down on the amazing central peak of Jackson crater, which rises 2000 meters above the crater floor. North is to the left; the area imaged measures 10 kilometers from left to right. NAC M1117602006LR [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State...

Published on 09 Jan 2018

Probing the Lunar Surface Using Small Impact Craters

A fresh impact crater with finely detailed ejecta patterns. How has this crater changed since it was formed? Can the shape of this crater tell us anything about the surface in which it formed? The crater cavity (centered at 20.870°S,...

Published on 20 Oct 2017

NAC Anaglyph: Haldane Crater

A fractured, bright, and fresh crater stands out on the floor of Haldane Crater, a 35 km diameter crater which has an unusual double-rim morphology on its eastern half. Possibly formed from a second, later impact [NASA/GSFC/Arizona...

Published on 04 Aug 2017

'Shaping' Lunar Science with Vector Data

Twenty new shapefiles created by the LROC Team are now available! A few of the shapefiles shown here include mare age units, footprints of digital terrain models (DTMs), and the locations of small geologic features such as...

Published on 18 Jul 2017

Tycho Limb Shot!

Magnificent oblique view of the eastern side of Tycho's central peak acquired when the Sun was relatively high above the horizon. From the viewpoint of LROC the Sun was behind and a bit to the north, so shadows are mostly hidden, thus...

Published on 27 Apr 2017

NAC Anaglyph: Tycho Melt Flow

Stunning complexity in impact melt deposits on the northern rim of Tycho crater that were once molten and flowed across the surface, but are now solidified [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

Published on 28 Oct 2016

Mapping Tycho Crater

A new geomorphological map of the interior of Tycho crater, produced using LROC NAC and SELENE Terrain Camera images. Read on for legend and unit descriptions [Krüger et al., 2016].

Published on 15 Jun 2016

Crater Concentric Ridges

The dune-like features seen here are called concentric ridges, and these beautiful examples are found within the northeastern ejecta of the 5-km crater Piton B. Scene centered at 39.36° N, 359.97° E, LROC NAC Image M181174044LR...

Published on 02 Jun 2016

Jackson Emerges

The western rim of Jackson crater floats out of the shadows in this oblique view of the prominent farside crater. LROC NAC image M1216470662LR, centered near 23.1°N, 196.1°E. [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University]

Published on 11 May 2016

Thick and Sticky Melt-Rock

Colorized slope map of a fresh impact crater and its ejecta. A deposit of solidified melt-rock and debris was formed at the end of the impact event on the floor of this 1.5-km diameter crater. The flat-lying floor materials (purple,...

Published on 15 Apr 2016

Chappy Oblique

Spectacular oblique view (65° slew angle) of a 1400 m diameter crater that formed on the rim of Chaplygin crater. Delicate lacy fingers of ejecta highlight the hummocky and steep topography around this young crater. The very brightest...

Published on 18 Mar 2016