Lunar Landscapes in 4K: South Pole-Aitken Basin panoramas and Theophilus Moon Crater

Lunar South Pole-Aitken basin, a colossal 2500 km diameter impact site from the pre-Nectarian period, is of immense scientific interest. Its unique features include a mascon (a large positive gravity anomaly), KREEP-rich terrain (indicative of a distinct magmatic history), and potential water ice deposits in permanently shadowed regions, making it a prime target for future lunar exploration. The SPA basin offers insights into the early solar system and the Moon's formation, presenting abundant resources for future lunar utilization and remaining a focal point for scientific investigation and discovery.

Building on Chang'e 4's success, the Chang'e 6 mission, launched in 2024, targeted the Apollo Basin within the SPA basin to retrieve lunar samples from the far side and conduct in-situ analyses of the lunar regolith and volatile content. Equipped with a drilling and sampling system for surface and subsurface samples, the Lunar Regolith Penetrating Radar for probing subsurface structures, and a Volatile Sampler and Analyzer to investigate compounds like water ice, Chang'e 6 aimed to deepen our understanding of the lunar far side. By June 2nd, 2024, Chang'e 6 successfully landed in the Apollo Basin, completed sample collection, and transferred them to the return module, awaiting its journey back to Earth.

Chang'e 4's findings have been groundbreaking, identifying mantle material in the Von Kármán crater ejecta and confirming low-frequency radio emissions from deep space. While cotton seeds sprouted, their growth wasn't sustainable due to extreme temperatures. In the end of this video is the visualisation of Theophilus crater, a prominent lunar feature, exhibits a well-defined terraced rim structure indicative of impact melt flow during formation. Its central peak complex suggests a complex impact event with substantial post-impact uplift and modification.

Images credit: China National Space Administration | cnsa.gov.cn

First panorama credit: Marcusagrippa7777, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

2nd and 3rd panoramas credit: CNSA, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

Final Theophilus crater visualisation: iGadgetPro

Visuals and sound made by iGadgetPro

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Timecodes
0:00 - Intro
0:40 - South Pole-Aitken Basin by Chang'e 4
1:17 - Moon's Hidden Face: First Images of the Far Side
2:32 - Yutu-2 Moon rover and Chang'e 4 Lander's panoramic view
3:05 - Impact Craters of Lunar far side
3:41 - Theophilus Crater by iGadgetPro

#change6 #moon4k #southpoleaitken #theophilus