Sign in / up

back to article Moon goodness: Far side of Luna in full colour

If you enjoy scanning your eyes over the magnificent curves and craters of our planet's closest companion, then you'll probably love this lush high res stereo image of the far side of the Moon recently uploaded to the net by a team at the Arizona State University. The farside of the moon, credit LROC The farside of the moon …

COMMENTS

House rules Send corrections
This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. batfastad
    Alien

    Cool

    Pretty cool actually.

    I had no idea the surface of the moon had such elevation extremes, going from -9000 at the bottom of the "ocean" to +10000m. That's similar to earth... -10902m to +8848m. In fact going off wikipedia and the scale shown in the bottom left of the pic, the moon has a bigger elevation range (that side of it at least) by 138m.

    How have they worked out the elevation of 0m "sea level" on the moon?

    Anyone know the actual lowest and highest points on the moon's surface?

    Alien icon because they are there but too small to see at max zoom of the image.

    0 0
    1. Mike Flugennock
      Reply Icon

      Lunar "sea level"?

      "How have they worked out the elevation of 0m "sea level" on the moon?"

      Huh, wow. I've been thinking about that, too. I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing that it involved some radar imaging and establishing "sea level" based on the mare/lava basin which reads as farthest from the radar. Mind you, this is totally a SWAG (Scientific Wild-Assed Guess).

      Some commenters on this forum:

      http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-504894.html

      ...are suggesting the Apollo 11 site at the Sea Of Tranquillity is established as "sea level". No definite answer there, though.

      0 0
      1. Swarthy
        Reply Icon
        Boffin

        "Sea" Level

        The Earth and mood have something else in common: "sea level" isn't. The oceans here are not, in fact always at sea level. There's some weird stuf about gravity and air preassure that makes sea level variable.

        The solution to this, and to the lunar (mare level?) is Height Above Ellipsoid: take the whole shape and figure out the shape as if the whole thing had been sanded down smooth. the height above (or below) this imagininary ellipsoid is you elevation.

        0 0
  2. Gordan
    Joke

    Clearly fake

    These images are clearly fake - they aren't showing the nazi base.

    6 0
    1. Alister
      Reply Icon

      @Gordan

      Damn, you beat me to it.

      I was going to ask which bit was the secret Russian base...

      0 0
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      or

      the toast king, let alone insanity prawn boy.

      0 0
      1. alwarming
        Reply Icon

        In Soviet Russia

        the far side of the moon sees you in full colour.

        0 0
      2. Elmer Phud
        Reply Icon

        or

        the London bus

        0 0
  3. Dan Paul
    Thumb Up

    Which one's Pink?

    Ah, if only poor Syd could have seen this image.......

    1 0
    1. Mike Flugennock
      Reply Icon

      re: which one's Pink?

      D'aah, damn. Somebody beat me to the Pink Floyd reference.

      I think Syd may have already seen this long ago, if you know what I mean:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iA7wdO00VI

      All that you touch, and all that you see, etc. etc.

      0 0
  4. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    This isn't the Pippa Middleton thread??

    I saw "rear end in all its glory" and my hopes got up!!

    Oh well, I'll always have Paris....

    0 0
  5. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    looks to me

    like s toasted cheese sandwich. very tasty.

    0 0
  6. CaNsA
    Trollface

    <obvious>

    Enter random reference to Transformers here</obvious>

    0 0
  7. FredScummer
    Paris Hilton

    Something Is Missing

    I haven't been able to spot where the Clangers hang out. Could someone help me please?

    Paris because I reckon she's a Clanger (or is that Banger?).

    0 0
  8. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    @cool

    Lowest point is Antoiniadi Crater -9.12 km, highest is on the dark side so doesn't have a name - it's romantically called (latitude 5.4125°, longitude 201.3665°) about 10,786 meters

    You can get much higher mountains on the moon because the lower gravity doesn't pull them down and with no liquid mantle there is noting for them to sink down into.

    Sea level on the moon is simpler than on earth, the moon is much more spherical (because it's solid and doesn't spin as fast) so you just pick an average distance form the centre. No two agencies seem to agree on the distance though

    0 0
  9. TeeCee Gold badge
    Joke

    Bloody typical.

    The side we can't see from here is the brightly coloured one.

    1 0
  10. atomic jam
    Black Helicopters

    It's a conspiracy!!

    What we are actually observing is the migration of Moonshrimp!

    0 0
This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like