Nottingham Trent University
About CELS    Higher Education Projects    Outreach Activities    Science Knowledge Bank   
 

Images taken from the NTU telescope

Image of the Moon, taken  by the NTU telescope

This image of the Moon's surface was taken with the 20 inch telescope, using no filters, on 10 June 2008.

Apart from several impressive craters, such as the 44km wide crater, Agrippa, this image also shows some straight lines, called Rimae by scientists. Two nice examples can be seen here: Rima Ariadaeus is 220 km long and runs from the centre to the lower left of the image. Rima Hyginus is to the top right of the centre and makes a sharp turn when encountering the small crater, Hyginus, which is 10 km wide. These Rimae are caused either by collapsed lava channels, or through a sudden cracking and shifting of the surface. These explanations explain many Rimae, however there is still some debate over how exactly this process happens. In particular, Rima Hyginus with its crater still seems to puzzle scientists. The final image is a result of 500 single images which were each exposed for 0.01 second.

Return to image gallery

 
CELS logo
A-Z search
Observatory location
Statements | Contacts Nottingham Trent University, Burton Street, Nottingham, NG1 4BU
Tel: +44 (0)115 941 8418 Email