This mottled landscape showing the impact crater Tycho is among the most violent-looking places on our Moon.
This image, taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys, reveals lunar features as small as roughly 560 feet (170 meters) across. The large "bulls-eye" near the top of the picture is the impact crater, caused by an asteroid strike about 100 million years ago. The bright trails radiating from the crater were formed by material ejected from the impact area during the asteroid collision. Tycho is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) wide and is circled by a rim of material rising almost 3 miles (5 kilometers) above the crater floor. The image measures 430 miles (700 kilometers) across, which is slightly larger than New Mexico.
Credits
NASA, ESA, and D. Ehrenreich (Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble (IPAG)/CNRS/Université Joseph Fourier)| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Moon, Tycho |
| Object Description | Crater on Earth's Moon |
| Distance | Approximately 237,000 miles (381,000 km) at the time of observation. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The image was created from Hubble data from proposal : D. Ehrenreich (Institut de Planétologie et d’Astrophysique de Grenoble (IPAG)/CNRS/Université Joseph Fourier), L. Arnold (CNRS, Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille), A. Vidal-Madjar (CNRS, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris), M. Barthelemy (Université de Grenoble I), I. Boisse (CNRS, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris), F. Bouchy (CNRS, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris), R. Cabanac (Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées), J.-M. Desert (Harvard University), R. Ferlet (CNRS, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris), G. Gronoff (NASA Langley Research Center), G. Hebrard (CNRS, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris), A. Lecavelier des Etangs (CNRS, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris), J. Lilensten (Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble), J. McConnell (York University), C. Moutou (CNRS, Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille), C. Nitschelm (Universidad Catolica del Norte), D. Kent Sing (University of Exeter). The primary objective of the program was spectroscopic observations with STIS to analyze sunlight reflected from the Moon. Images were obtained in parallel with ACS. |
| Instrument | HST>ACS/WFC |
| Exposure Dates | January 11, 2012, Exposure Time: 0.5 seconds |
| Filters | F502N ([O III]) |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | This is a black and white (grayscale) image from a single exposure acquired by the ACS instrument on HST. Gaps in the HST data have been filled using an image at similar lunar phase from the . |
| Compass Image |  |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
