Tycho Crater

James

James

January 04, 2012 · 2 min read

I thought I'd see how close I could get to Tycho Crater, and here it is. Quite blurry, and over processed in an attempt to bring out some detail, but nonetheless , fun to try...

86.21Km in diameter and up to 4.8Km deep. You can clearly make out the main central peak which rises 1.6 kilometers above the crater floor. Best guesses are that Tycho is about 108 million years old.

I love to imagine one day a geologist and explorer climbing this peak, what an achievement that would be. The first man to climb the central peak of Tycho crater on Earth's Moon. That person's name will surely be learnt in the schools of the future...

My image is about 570 meters per pixel.

Below is a stunning NASA image of the central peak taken by their Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft from just 50km above the surface (so a lot closer than my ~380,000km!).

NASA/Luna Reconnaissance Orbiter (Credit: NASA Goddard/Arizona State University)

If you want to explore Tycho further take a look at this stunning 3D model, created with data from Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agencies, Kaguya spacecraft, using it's Terrain Camera.