KEY POINTS

  • A California photographer shared the 'world's clearest' image of the Moon's craters
  • The image is a combination of thousands of Moon photos taken over a span of two weeks
  • Compared to the Earth, the Moon has thousands of craters on its surface

A California photographer has shared an image of the Moon that is now being dubbed as the "world's clearest" picture of its craters.

On Instagram, photographer Andrew McCarthy shared a unique image of the Moon that highlights its many craters. The image is actually not one single picture but a combination of thousands of Moon photos taken over a span of two weeks.

"This moon might look a little funny to you, and that's because it is an impossible scene," McCarthy said in his post, explaining that he captured the images at the lunar terminator, the line between the dark and bright side of the Moon, so that the craters will be clearer and more pronounced. "This was exhausting to say the least, namely because the moon doesn't line up day over day, so each image had to be mapped to a 3d sphere and adjusted to make sure each image aligned."

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Oops... All terminator! I haven't posted in a while, partly because I was under the weather, and partly because I was working on this BEAST of a project. This moon might look a little funny to you, and that's because it is an impossible scene. From 2 weeks of images of the waxing moon, I took the section of the picture that has the most contrast (right before the lunar terminator where shadows are the longest), aligned and blended them to show the rich texture across the entire surface. This was exhausting to say the least, namely because the moon doesn't line up day over day, so each image had to be mapped to a 3d sphere and adjusted to make sure each image aligned. I may or may not try this again for the waning phases depending on feedback. The full size for this, as well as a phone background, was shared with patrons. Check the link in my bio if you'd like to join and get access to more exclusive content!

A post shared by Andrew McCarthy (@cosmic_background) on

By combining the phases into one, the resulting image, which McCarthy called the "All Terminator", showed the Moon's craters with great clarity.

The Moon's Many Craters

Both the Earth and the Moon have been hit by many asteroids and meteors throughout their long histories. However, even though the Earth is more likely to get hit because it is bigger, it only has 180 craters while the Moon has thousands.

According to NASA, this is because the Earth has the capability to remove traces of past impacts whereas the Moon does not. For instance, while erosion on Earth can wear down a crater, the Moon practically has no such mechanism to get rid of the craters because it has no atmosphere. This is why even footsteps of the astronauts who have been on the Moon will likely stay there for a long time.

The Earth is also capable of forming new rocks and getting rid of old ones in a process called tectonics, while some of the craters on Earth can get covered up by volcanic flows. The Moon, however, has not experienced tectonics in billions of years, and has not had volcanism for three billion years.

Because of these factors, the craters of the Moon have been preserved for billions of years.

Moon's Water Ice
Conceptual illustration of permanently shadowed, shallow icy craters near the lunar south pole. NASA/UCLA
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