ISRO releases new 3D images of a crater on Moon`s surface captured by Chandrayaan-2

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has released new three-dimensional images of a crater on the moon`s surface captured by the Chandrayaan -2. The images of the crater was captured by the Terrain Mapping Camera-2 (TMC-2) aboard Chandrayaan-2.

TMC-2 provides images (0.4μm to 0.85μm) at 5m spatial resolution & stereo triplets (fore, nadir and aft views) from a 100 km orbit for preparing Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the complete lunar surface.

"Have a look of 3D view of a crater imaged by TMC-2 of Chandrayaan2. TMC-2 provides images at 5m spatial resolution & stereo triplets (fore, nadir and aft views) for preparing DEM of the complete lunar surface," ISRO tweeted from its official handle on Wednesday.

The triplet images from TMC-2 when processed into Digital Elevation Models, enable mapping of surface landform morphologies. 

These include - Craters (formed by impactors), Lava tubes (potential sites for future habitability), Rilles (furrows formed by lava channels or collapsed lava tubes), Dorsa or wrinkle ridges (formed mostly in Mare regions depicting cooling of and contraction of basaltic lava), Graben structures (depicts the structural dislocations on the lunar surface) and Lunar Domes/ Cones (denoting localized vents of past volcanism on the Moon).

The derived information facilitates estimation of dimensions of above features and its comparison for reconstructing the morpho-structural framework, crater characterization to derive impact geometries, surface age determination through Crater Size –Frequency Distribution (CSFD) methods, Rheological analysis based on the derived morphometric parameters, Lunar reflectance estimation etc.