Explanation:
Aristarchus Plateau
is anchored in the
vast lava flows of the Moon's
Oceanus Procellarum.
At the plateau's southeastern edge lies the
spectacular
Aristarchus Crater, an impact crater
40 kilometers wide and 3 kilometers deep.
Scan along this remarkable panorama and you will find yourself
gazing directly at the crater's west wall
for some 25 kilometers.
Features along the terraced wall include dark impact melt
and debris deposits, bright excavated material, and
boulders over 100 meters wide.
At
a full resolution of 1.6 meters per pixel,
the sharp mosaic was created from images recorded by the
Lunar
Reconnaissance Orbiter's
narrow angle camera in November of 2011.
The orbiter's vantage point was 70 kilometers
east of the crater's center and only
26 kilometers above the lunar surface.
