The US space agency NASA has made public images of an enigmatic silver object resembling a surfboard that was orbiting the moon. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) captured the images. They show a slender horizontal line of something that looks like Marvel’s “Silver Surfer” character’s board. But the enigmatic object isn’t a superhero movie, comic book character, or even an unidentified flying object (UFO). As the two orbiters zipped past one another, NASA’s LRO managed to capture its South Korean counterpart, the space agency reported.
According to NASA’s press note, LRO captured several images of the Danuri lunar orbiter sent by its Korean counterpart, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, as the two zipped past each other in parallel but opposite directions between March 5 and 6. The space agency explained that the image of Danuri, which has been orbiting the Moon since 2022, appears to be distorted because of the extremely fast relative velocity between it and the LRO.
“Although LRO’s camera exposure time was very short, only 0.338 milliseconds, Danuri still appears smeared to 10 times its size in the opposite direction of travel because of the relative high travel velocities between the two spacecraft,” NASA wrote.
Danuri is South Korea’s first spacecraft on the Moon and has been in lunar orbit since December 2022.
According to the space agency’s report, “exquisite timing” was required for the LRO operations team at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, to guide LROC to the correct location at the right time in order to see Danuri. Because of the two spacecraft’s rapid relative velocities, which were roughly 11,500 km/h, the task was not simple.
According to NASA, the photos were taken by the LRO’s narrow-angle camera during three orbits that coincided with Danuri’s proximity to the spacecraft.
Interestingly, LRO debuted in 2009. Since then, it has used its seven potent instruments to gather important data. It has proven to be a priceless addition to our understanding of the Moon.
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