Take a 3-D Ride Through Tycho Crater

By Nancy Atkinson - January 23, 2009 at 2:10 PM UTC | Planetary Science
central-peak-of-tycho-crater.jpg

[/caption] This is extremely very cool! Make sure you have your 3-D glasses on and take a 3-D ride in and around Tycho Crater on the Moon, courtesy of Japan's Kaguya (Selene) mission. Tycho Crater is the big crater located on the Moon's southern hemisphere, easily visible, especially when the Moon is full. The crater is notable for its emanating bright rays. The movie starts with an overview image of Tycho Crater, then approaches the central peak, flies along the steep slope of the inner wall, flies over the backside of the crater, and approaches the central peak again. Go get your 3-D glasses, and view the movie here. And hang on!

More about the movie and Tycho Crater:

[caption id="attachment_24097" align="aligncenter" width="240" caption="The red dot on the "near side" image (left) indicates Tycho Crater's location. Credit: JAXA"]

[/caption] The creation of the two minute 3-D analglyph fly-through movie was made using data from Kaguya's Stereo Terrain Camera. The crater is named after Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. The impact that created Tycho Crater ejected highland anorthositic crust all over the near side of the Moon. This impact by a small asteroidal body took place about 100 million years ago, when the dinosaurs inhabited the Earth. It was, however, still a relatively recent event in lunar history, and the effects of the impact event can clearly be seen in this movie. Enjoy!

Source: Kaguya website

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com