AIRCRAFT NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has been circling the moon since 2009. But new images NASA shared Monday (November 22) from the spacecraft show a very different goal: Saturn, complete with amazing planetary rings.
The LRO aircraft took this image on October 13 using the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC). At the time, the spacecraft was about 56 miles (90 kilometers) above the lunar feature dubbed Lacus Veris, or Spring Lake, according to a NASA statement.
The LROC camera was actually designed to study the Moon. So NASA had to manipulate the spacecraft carefully to capture such stunning images of Saturn.
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While similar images of Jupiter can see some of the largest giant moons, LRO cannot do the same on Saturn. That’s because Saturn is dimmer than Jupiter. both are much dimmer than the moon the LROC was designed to study.
(DRM)
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