Although it has been some years since humans have stepped foot on the Moon, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has been snapping away at its surface, proving it's still as awe-inspiring as ever.
The images were taken by JAXA’s SELENE spacecraft, which orbited the Moon between October 2007 and June 2009. The spacecraft is better known by its nickname Kaguya, named after a lunar princess from a 10th-century Japanese legend. During its mission, it managed to take more than 450 images of the lunar surface with its 2.2 megapixel HD color camera, some of which are from heights as low as 100 kilometers (62 miles).
This is just a snippet of the JAXA data dump, but you can enjoy the whole archive on the JAXA website, which also includes some equally incredible video footage.
[H/T: The Planetary Society]
All images ©JAXA/NHK
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