New Research Shows Ultra High-Resolution Images of the Moon Captured from Earth, Documenting the Apollo 15 Landing Site.
A new series of images was unveiled on January 10th at the 241st meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Seattle, Washington. These images capture the landing site of NASA’s Apollo 15 mission as well as the Tycho Crater, a prominent impact region in the southern highlands of the Moon.
Detailed image of Apollo 15 landing site. (Photo: Raytheon Technologies).
The research team produced these images using the Green Bank Telescope (GBT), a 100-meter diameter telescope located in West Virginia, which is the largest steerable radio telescope in the world. According to Patrick Taylor, the radar manager at the Green Bank Observatory and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), the GBT transmitted radio waves illuminating the Moon. The reflected signals were captured by a cluster of four 25-meter radio telescopes in the Long Baseline Array in Hilo, Hawaii.
During the imaging process, a prototype radar device on the GBT transmitted 700 watts of power, equivalent to a household appliance or a cluster of light bulbs, according to Taylor. However, it was capable of detecting features as small as 1.5 meters around the Apollo 15 landing site and objects as small as 5 meters in the Tycho Crater.
The researchers also utilized the equipment to gather data on a one-kilometer diameter asteroid passing near Earth, at a distance five times that between the Earth and the Moon. Due to its size and orbit, this asteroid is classified as potentially hazardous. However, Taylor noted that the object currently poses no threat to Earth. The equipment not only detected the asteroid but also determined its size, speed, rotation, composition, and how light scatters from its surface.
Taylor and his team aim to develop a more advanced version of the device, capable of transmitting at approximately 700 times the current power, around 500 kilowatts. Such a system could be used for lunar geological studies and searching for space debris, as well as identifying characteristics of asteroids that may threaten Earth. This advancement would allow the GBT to replace the famous Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, which collapsed in 2020.
