Geographers from the U.S. Geological Survey are giving us a great new glimpse of the moon's cratered surface with the release of amazing new maps made for NASA.
The colorful blue Mercator map, published Monday, was made using data obtained from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) that's currently orbiting the moon aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. It's based on 6.5 billion measurements made between July 2009 and July 2013. Amid the many craters and holes, you can see a vast flat space called the Oceanus Procellarum created by volcanic eruptions.
The other image released is a black-and-white image mosaic based on the same data using wide angle cameras:
See both maps in all their glory here and here.
Source: Washington Post/Know More
