Spectacular Moon Pictures

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31269, 16 January 1967, Page 13

Spectacular Moon Pictures

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) WASHINGTON, Jan. 15. Thirty-three new and spectacular photographs of the moon, taken from distances of 900 to 27 miles, have been released by the National A e r onautics and Space Administration. “These pictures confirm the fact that the moon has had a

long and complicated history of volcanic activity,” one official said. The photographs were taken in late November by America’s camera-carrying spacecraft. Lunar Orbiter 11, launched on November 6. They show craters and domes on the lunar surface. One picture covers an area of thousands of square miles and shows a fantastic array of domes 1000 ft to 1500 ft high and two miles to 10 miles in diameter. Officials said the volcanic domes resembled those in

Oregon and northern California.

The spacecraft’s cameras photographed such fine details as the trail left by a large rolling stone careering down a moon slope and the crater left by Ranger VIII when it hit the moon almost two years ago. The stone, estimated by experts to be 40ft across, rolled about a third of a mile down a crater in the southern Sea of Tranquility and apparently came to rest on a relatively level area in the centre of the crater. The point where Ranger VIII hit the moon shows up clearly as a white spot quite different from any other features in the area. The photograph was taken from 27 miles above the moon and received at the Woomera tracking station.

Kosygin On Tour.—The Soviet Prime Minister, Mr Kosygin, arrived on the Soviet Far Eastern island of Sakhalin yesterday, continuing a tour of strategic areas close to the Soviet-Chinese border to explain the Kremlin’s policy towards China.—Moscow, January 15».