Kaguya satellite captures rise and set of Earth over Moon

Nov 15: US Apollo moon mission in 1960’s has been revived by Japan’s Kaguya spacecraft which sent high definition imagery showing an Earth rise on the horizon of Moon.

The magnificent photographs were taken by Kaguya while it was orbiting moon at an altitude of 100 metre.

•   E-mail Article
•   Printer Friendly
•   Text-Size    

The images show the blue planet floating in the dark background with different phases of Earth rising and setting on Moon.

The moon explorer is assisted with two other satellites called relay satellite and VRAD satellite, the orbiters carry instrument to carry on the moon investigation from the moon, on the moon and of the moon.

The images were captured by HDTV (High Definition Television) for space use developed by NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation).

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said in a press release, “We use the expression 'Earth-rise', but the Earth-rise is a phenomenon seen only from satellites that travel around the Moon, such as the Kaguya and the Apollo space ship”.

“The Earth-rise cannot be observed by a person who is on the Moon as they can always see the Earth at the same position,” it added.

The images showed the Earth upside down showing Asia and Australia too in upside down positions which were hard to recognise while another image shows the Indian Ocean.

The most sophisticated moon mission will provide all the valuable information and data for using the moon for human endeavours.

The agency is further planning to take the full image of earth and will start the main part of the study in December like reviewing the lunar gravity field.

This triumph will add zeal to Japan’s Moon mission which is planning to send a moon mission by the year 2020.

The Apollo was the first satellite to send images of earth rise and set in 1960s.

The images taken by Kaguya will be broadcast on Discovery HD in a programme “Return to the Moon: The First Images”.