This Moon-mosaic is comprised of 1,231 images taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter’s (LRO) Narrow-Angle Camera (NAC) in the summer of 2018. The LRO team chose each tile from over 10,000 of the highest quality LROC NAC frames by searching for the best match of brightness and gradient (the direction and size of the brightness change across the frame).
Since LRO’s launch in 2009, the camera team has published over one million gigabytes of image data, all of which are available to the public.
In anticipation of the upcoming Artemis I mission to the Moon, NASA is asking the public to share all of your Moon-inspired content — including but not limited to your Moon photographs, your Moon music, and your Moon nail art — with the hashtag #NASAMoonSnap. We will be sharing a variety of Moon Snaps on our social media accounts, on our website, and during the Artemis I launch broadcast.
Image Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio