NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter sees GRAIL's lunar impact
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Artist's concept of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (Image: NASA)
Artist's concept of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (Image: NASA)
Artist's concept of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (Image: NASA)
Artist's concept of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (Image: NASA)
Artist's concept of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (Image: NASA)
Impact sites of GRAIL A and B (Image: NASA)
GRAIL A before impact (Image: NASA)
GRAIL A after impact (Image: NASA)
GRAIL B before impact (Image: NASA)
GRAIL B after impact (Image: NASA)
Comparison of GRAIL A and B before impact (Image: NASA)
Comparison of GRAIL A and B after impact (Image: NASA)
Artist's concept of the GRAIL spacecraft (Image: NASA)
Topographic image of GRAIL impact sites (Image: NASA)
GRAIL impact sites ( (Image: NASA)
Final trajectory of the GRAIL spacecraft (Image: NASA)
LAMP
LAMP cutaway
LAMP field of view
Article Summary
NASA has released images and findings from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which witnessed the impact of NASA's twin GRAIL (Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory) spacecraft as they struck the Moon near the North Pole in a controlled impact on Dec.17, 2012. The unmanned orbiter sent back before and after images of the impact sites and used its Lyman-Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) instrument to study the plume of dust and gas thrown up by the double impact, producing new insights into the processes going on in the interior of the Moon.
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