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Mini-RF image strip across Oceanus Procellarum

Mini-RF image strip across Oceanus Procellarum
Mini-RF image strip across Oceanus Procellarum

Mini-RF is a low-mass synthetic aperture radar instrument aboard Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, sister to the Mini-SAR instrument that flew on Chandrayaan-1. This skinny Mini-RF image swath runs from about 7 to 25.5 north latitude, roughly along 49° west longitude, across Oceanus Procellarum. It covers an area about 12 kilometers wide and more than 500 kilometers long (it has been divided into three parts to display better on the web site).

At top is the Cobra Head (24.7° N, 49.3° W; about 7 km diameter), the source vent of the long, sinuous Schroter's Valley, a giant lava channel on the Aristarchus Plateau. The strip continues southward through the lava-filled crater Herodtous, into the maria of Oceanus Procellarum. The otherwise fairly flat mare is peppered with bright dots, secondary impact craters that formed from the debris that flew out of the Aristarchus impact event. The strip covers at least three of the sinuous lava channels of the Marius Hills volcanic complex, including Rima Marius itself near the top of the rightmost (southernmost) strip segment.

The "click to enlarge" version of the image shown here is only 1/3 of its native resolution; the full-length strip is available here (JPG, 11 MB).

NASA / APL / LPI