PHOTO: This is the best image of the Moon taken from Earth

Photo: LAURENT EMMANUEL/AFP/Getty Images

We have recently observed many photos of the Moon taken from space by space missions from different countries, but recently The most detailed image of the Earth’s natural satellite was published Taken from our planet.

A prototype radar system being tested at the National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia has just taken the most detailed picture of the Moon from Earth using a less powerful transmitter than a microwave oven.

“With a transmitter less powerful than a microwave oven, a team of scientists and engineers used the GBT and the National Science Foundation’s Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) to perform the higher resolution radar images of the Moon ever collected from the ground,” reported the Green Bank Observatory (GBO).

Thanks to this technology, it was possible to capture an image of Tycho crater with a resolution of 5 metersshowing unprecedented detail of the lunar surface from Earth.

“It is enough amazing what we have been able to grasp so farusing less energy than a typical household appliance,” said Patrick Taylor, head of the GBO’s radar division and the National Radio Astronomical Observatory.

Other uses for the radar system

The same observatory highlights that this prototype may pave the way for a next-generation radar system that allows to study planets, moons and asteroids of the Solar System, even from facilities located on Earth.

The GBO also explains that a system like this will serve in the front line of planetary defense, capable of detecting, tracking and characterizing potentially dangerous objects that may be on a collision course with Earth.

“In our tests, we were able to locate an asteroid 2.1 million kilometers from uss, more than five times the distance from Earth to the Moon. The asteroid is about a kilometer in size, large enough to cause global devastation on impact,” Taylor added.

Astronomers will also find this tool useful for astrometryimaging, and physical and dynamic characterization of solar system objects for planetary science.

You might also be interested in:

After its arrival on the Moon, South Korean mission captures amazing images of Earth

The first private lunar module has already taken photos in deep space