NASA shares pictures of Chandrayaan-3 landing site, Know more details

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, LRO just captured a photograph of the lander of Chandrayaan-3, India’s third mission to the moon. It is the first spacecraft to successfully land near the lunar south pole, and this image was captured by LRO on August 27, just four days after the historic moon landing.

The official X account of NASA shared the image on the platform captioning it as  “LRO spacecraft recently imaged the Chandrayaan-3 lander on the Moon’s surface.” The post further added “The ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) Chandrayaan-3 touched down on Aug. 23, 2023, about 600 kilometers from the Moon’s South Pole..”

Four days later, the LRO camera captured an oblique view (42-degree slew angle) of the lander, according to NASA. The dazzling halo surrounding the craft was caused by the rocket plume colliding with the fine-grained regolith (soil).

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages LRO for the Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Meanwhile, India’s Space Research Organization released a 3-dimensional ‘anaglyph’ photograph of the Chandrayaan-3 Vikram lander from the moon’s south pole on Tuesday.

“The anaglyph presented here is created using NavCam stereo images, which consist of both a left and right image captured onboard the Pragyan Rover,” the space agency said on X.

For unversed, Anaglyph is a simple three-dimensional depiction of an object or terrain created using stereo or multi-view photos.

“In this 3-channel image, the left image is positioned in the red channel, while the right image is placed in the blue and green channels (creating cyan). The difference in perspective between these two images results in the stereo effect, which gives the visual impression of three dimensions. Red and cyan glasses are recommended for viewing in 3D,” ISRO stated.