Hyperwall: Tycho Central Peak

  • Released Wednesday, June 18th, 2014
  • Updated Tuesday, November 14th, 2023 at 12:05AM
  • ID: 4220

This image set is formatted for NASA's hyperwall, a tiled display with a combined resolution of up to 9600 x 3240.

On June 10, 2011, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) slewed 65° to the west, allowing its narrow-angle camera (the LROC NAC) to capture this dramatic sunrise view of the mountains at the center of Tycho crater. It's not hard to see why this image was the winner of the Moon as Art contest.

A popular target of amateur astronomers, Tycho is located at 43.3°S, 11.4°W, and is about 85 kilometers (55 miles) wide. A system of bright ejecta rays radiating from the crater is easily visible in binoculars and small telescopes during Full Moon. The crater's features are so steep and sharp because it's only about 110 million years old, quite young by lunar standards.

LROC NAC image M162350671, cropped and scaled for 5 x 3 hyperwall.

LROC NAC image M162350671, cropped and scaled for 5 x 3 hyperwall.

Tycho crater (center) as it might have looked in a small telescope on Earth when LRO took its image of the central peak.

Tycho crater (center) as it might have looked in a small telescope on Earth when LRO took its image of the central peak.

A close-up of the central peak's summit, at the same pixel scale as the original NAC image.

A close-up of the central peak's summit, at the same pixel scale as the original NAC image.

A view of the central peak from directly overhead, cropped from NAC image M127008391L.

A view of the central peak from directly overhead, cropped from NAC image M127008391L.

A magma flow around Tycho crater that resembles a waterfall. More info.

A magma flow around Tycho crater that resembles a waterfall. More info.

NAC image M162350671 at its original resolution.

NAC image M162350671 at its original resolution.

In this animation, the camera pans over the image as if the viewer were flying past Tycho crater, then zooms in on the summit of the central peak.

For More Information

See http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/384

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