Credit: NASA
Sunrise shadows on the moon's Tycho crater seen by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Image Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University
On June 10, 2011, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter angled its orbit 65° to the west, allowing the spacecraft's cameras to capture a dramatic sunrise view of the Moon's Tycho crater.
The pitch-black patches loom behind the Tycho crater's central peak complex, which is about 15 km wide from southeast to northwest.
A very popular target with amateur astronomers, Tycho is located at 43.37°S, 348.68°E, and is about 82 km in diameter. The summit of the central peak is 2 km above the crater floor. The distance from Tycho's floor to its rim is about 4.7 km.
The photo was taken on June 10 by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in orbit around the moon.
