Emily Lakdawalla • Oct 09, 2009
Palomar image of crater Cabeus after LCROSS impact
Here's the sharpest optical image shown today of the Moon, from Palomar Observatory. You can see a notch in the bright mountain ridge in front of the crater, and a sunny spot on the far wall, which together appeared to look like a plume and its shadow in the much blurrier MMT image posted earlier. I see no plume in this image, and Jennifer Heldmann, who coordinated the Earth-based observations, didn't see one either.
EDIT 8:50 a.m.: I've replaced the image I originally posted (which came from a PDF file posted on the LCROSS wbesite) with one that came directly from Palomar Observatory, which is slightly sharper and presumably at its correct native resolution.
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