PIA13515: Natural Bridge on the Moon


Natural Bridge on the Moon

Caption:

Another amazing bit of lunar geology revealed by LROC. NAC M113168034R, north is up.

Natural bridges on the Earth are typically the result of wind and water erosion -- not a likely scenario on the Moon. So how did this natural bridge form? The most likely answer is dual collapse into a lava tube.

Background Info:

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center built and manages the mission for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera was designed to acquire data for landing site certification and to conduct polar illumination studies and global mapping. Operated by Arizona State University, LROC consists of a pair of narrow-angle cameras (NAC) and a single wide-angle camera (WAC). The mission is expected to return over 70 terabytes of image data.

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target Moon
System Earth
Target Type Satellite
Mission Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)
Instrument Host Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
Host Type Orbiter
Instrument Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (NAC)
Detector Narrow Angle Camera (NAC), Wide Angle Camera (WAC)
Extra Keywords Grayscale, Water
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2010-09-07
Date in Caption
Image Credit NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA13515
Identifier PIA13515