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An eerie image of the Earth above a deeply shadowed moon.
JAXA / NHK
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A great view of the Drygalski crater at the South Pole. It is 4 km deep.
JAXA / NHK
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The earth rises in the distance.
JAXA / NHK
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This view never gets boring.
JAXA / NHK
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A view of the craters Moretus and Clavius.
JAXA / NHK
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A close-up of the Orientale Basin.
JAXA / NHK
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The moon’s famous Copernicus crater can be seen in the distance.
JAXA / NHK
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To get back to the moon, you’ll need to navigate Earth’s politics.
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A view of the Marius Hills on the moon, which average 200 to 500 meters in height.
JAXA / NHK
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A view of Mons Rümker, a volcanic formation.
JAXA / NHK
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The Archimedes crater, a large impact crater, dominates the moon’s horizon.
JAXA / NHK
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A crescent Earth.
JAXA / NHK
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A view of the Aitken Basin at the South Pole.
JAXA / NHK
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A view of the Aitken crater.
JAXA / NHK
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A deeply shadowed Humboldt crater.
JAXA / NHK
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The Sinus Medii, a relatively small moon mare.
JAXA / NHK
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A view of the Apollo 17 lunar landing site, including the Taurus-Littrow Valley.
JAXA / NHK
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A sunlit view of the South Pole.
JAXA / NHK
Most people are familiar with the Apollo images of the moon, which show astronauts working and playing on the lunar surface. But those photos often don’t quite do justice to the moon’s stark beauty, and some of the most astonishing images of Earth’s companion don’t come from the surface, but from above. Perhaps no spacecraft captured this better than one launched by Japan nearly a decade ago.
As of October 2007, Japan’s Kaguya spacecraft spent the better part of two years in a polar lunar orbit, including transits of up to 100 km. As part of its payload, the spacecraft carried two 2.2 megapixel CCD HDTV color cameras, a telephoto lens and a wide-angle lens. These cameras returned the first high-definition video from the moon to Earth.
Japan’s space agency JAXA has previously released some of these photos into the public domain. But now the agency has released the full dataset, including more than 450 images, the Planetary Society reports. The newly available images include some with lens flare, adding a dynamic touch to the lunar surface.
So maybe you’ve never seen them before. Or maybe you’ve seen some of the more iconic Earth-rise images captured by Kaguya. Anyway, the moon is now on display in its greater glory, as we’ve rounded up some of the best images in the gallery above, along with some basic location information. The full catalog can be found here.
List image by JAXA/NHK