MoonNorthPole

Size: 124 K

PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011

PHOTO CAPTION                                      P-41483
                                                   GLL/EM16

This view looking down on the north pole of the Moon was
assembled from 18 images taken with a green filter by Galileo's
imaging system as the spacecraft flew by the Moon on December 7,
1992. The part of the moon visible from Earth is toward the left
and includes the dark, lava-filled Imbrium basin, upper left;
Mare Serenitatis, middle left; Mare Tranquillitatis, lower left;
and Crisium, the dark circular feature toward the bottom of the
mosaic. Also visible in this view are the dark lava plains of
the Marginis and Smythii basins, lower right. The Humboldtianum
Basin, a 650-kilometer (400-mile) impact structure partly filled
with dark volcanic deposits, is visible in the middle of the
image. The Moon's north pole is located just inside the shadow
zone about a third of the way from the top left of the lighted
region. The Galileo project, whose primary mission is the
exploration of the Jupiter system in 1995-97, is managed for
NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications by the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory.

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