S.Korea's lunar orbiter Danuri captures back side of the moon

South Korea's first lunar orbiter Danuri has released photos of the moon's far side. The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) announced on Wednesday that photos of the Tsiolkovsky Crater  and the Vallis Schrodinger vally and Szilard M craters, taken by Danuri on March 22-24, have been made public.

It is significant that South Korea has captured photos of the moon's far side for the first time. The photos taken on March 24 hold special meaning as they were captured on the day Danuri completed 1,000 revolutions around the moon.

The released videos were taken by the Lunar Terrain Imager (LUTI) installed on Danuri, which allows for clear confirmation of the detailed shapes of the moon's surface, such as craters and mountain peaks within the craters.

In addition, video footage taken by the Polcam wide-angle polarimetric camera developed by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute has also been released.

The camera, developed to determine the size and composition of lunar surface particles through polarization imaging, shows clear differences in brightness depending on the type of wavelength and polarization filter used in the captured footage. It is expected to be of great help in studying the distribution of lunar surface particles and composition in the future.

In addition to the photos and footage, results of lunar scientific research based on data from Danuri and a front polarization map of the moon will also be made public from 2024. The Danuri website has also made available the footage taken by Danuri, and a service that allows the real-time location of Danuri in lunar orbit will be provided from Wednesday.

Write to Jin-Won Kim at jin1@hankyung.com