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Orientale Basin on the Moon as seen in LROC wide-angle mosaic

Orientale Basin on the Moon as seen in LROC wide-angle mosaic
Orientale Basin on the Moon as seen in LROC wide-angle mosaic One of the goals of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission is to produce a global photomosaic of the lunar surface using its wide-angle camera that can serve as a base map for all other sorts of data. A year into the mission, that mosaic is nearly complete except for some small gaps. This image shows a small part of that mosaic, covering the youngest large basin on the Moon, Orientale. Only about half of Orientale is visible from Earth, since it's located right on the edge of the visible disk; orbital missions are needed to see it in its entirety. Orientale is a multi-ringed impact basin that is only partially filled with dark mare basalts. When enlarged, this image is at 20 percent of the full resolution of the wide-angle camera; you can browse and download the full-resolution image here. NASA / GSFC / ASU