NASA Lunar Probe Sends Earth Its First Pictures of the Moon’s Landscape

First Posted: Feb 18, 2014 10:50 AM EST
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Designed by the NASA's Ames Research Center, the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer was launched in September with a mission to orbit the moon and gather specific information. The probe's first pictures were taken and sent back to NASA last week.

According to NASA's LADEE Mission page, the probe's mission is to "gather detailed information about the structure and composition of the thin lunar atmosphere (the exosphere), and determine whether dust is being lofted into the lunar sky," which you can see on the NASA website. When LADEE's findings are gathered, scientists plan to use the information to understand other celestial bodies, including asteroids, planets, and the moons of other planets.

The probe's star tracker cameras snapped the photos of the moon's landscape on February 8th. They were taken on the northern western hemisphere of the moon, which was lit up by the Earthshine (reflected light visible on the Moon's night side). The photos taken were of the moon's craters, mountain ranges, and plateaus.

The specific goal of this lunar mission is for scientists to unearth information about an odd glow on the moon's horizon before sunrise. The glow has been seen since before the Apollo moon missions, and scientists believe it is caused by electrically charged dust in the moon's exosphere. The $280 million lunar probe sports advanced instrumentation that seeks to discover if the charged dust caused the glow.

But beyond solving this mystery, scientists and researchers believe that such information recorded from the moon could help them learn more about exospheres on other moons and small planetary bodies throughout the solar system. LADEE has until April 21st to gather all of the information it can before it runs out of fuel and returns to Earth.

To read more about NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, visit this NASA LADEE mission page as well as this FOX News article.

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