* Astronomy

ESA's SMART-1 spacecraft captured this image of crater Gassendi on the Moon. The spacecraft's advanced Moon Imaging Experiment (AMIE) captured the photograph on January 13 at a distance of 1220 km (760 miles) from the surface. Gassendi is an impact crater on the near side of the Moon, but it's unusual because it seems to have large quantities of volcanic material on the crater floor.



This mosaic of two images, taken by the advanced Moon Imaging Experiment (AMIE) on board ESA’s SMART-1 spacecraft, shows the inside of crater Gassendi on the Moon.

AMIE obtained these images on 13 January 2006, one minute apart from each other, from a distance of about 1220 kilometres (top frame) and 1196 kilometres (bottom frame) from the surface, with a ground resolution of 110 and 108 metres per pixel, respectively.
The area shown in the top image is centred at a latitude of 16.2º South and longitude 40.2º West, while the bottom images is centred at a latitude of 17.9º South and longitude 40.2º West.

Gassendi is an impact feature located on the near side of the Moon, at the northern edge of Mare Humorum. The crater is actually much larger than the field of view visible in this image. The hills on the lower right of the mosaic are the central peak of the crater, with a height of roughly 1.2 kilometres. The crater almost fully visible on the top is called ‘Gassendi A’.

Surce