LROC: Meandering

Western slope of Fabbroni crater cavity; field of view width 1200 meters (view the original 1200 px LROC Featured Image released May 16, 2012 HERE), downslope is to the east. Unreleased LROC Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) observation M188050156R, orbit 12776, April 2, 2012; 1 meter resolution [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

Hiroyuki Sato
LROC News System

Young fresh lunar craters always present sharp and spectacular features. Today's Featured Image highlights the western slope of the Fabbroni crater located at the north edge of Mare Tranquillitatis, near the Apollo 17 landing site. Slope failures have created many narrow channels of granular material flowing down toward the center of the crater.

The reflectance of a material changes depending on various factors, such as the composition, grain size, and maturity. The crater cavity slope is composed of multiple layers and their debris. The mixtures of these materials exhibit various reflectances, which bring the flow features into sharp contrast.

Fabbroni crater and immediate vicinity, near the confluence of Mare Serenitatis and Tranquillitatis. Image cropped from LROC Wide Angle Camera (WAC) monochrome (604nm) mosaic swept up during three sequential orbital passes December 2, 2011; resolution 51 meters from 36.2 kilometers, centered on 18.65°N, 29.27°E, southwest of the landing site of Apollo 17 in 1972. The area highly resolved in the LROC Featured Image released May 16, 2012 is designated by the yellow arrow. The original context image accompanying the Featured Image release, showing a labeled, larger area can be viewed HERE [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

Open up the full NAC frame and explore these spectacular meandering flows by yourself, HERE. 

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HDTV still image from above 100 kilometers captured by Japan's lunar orbiter SELENE-1 (Kaguya), released in 2008 shows Fabbroni (left of center bottom) in relation to Mare Serenitatis on the east and Taurus Littrow valley (cul de sac surrounded on three sides by mountains) explored by Cernan and Schmitt of Apollo 17 in December 1972. View the larger image HERE [JAXA/NHK/SELENE].