Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Last Kaguya HDTV Images Before Impact

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The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has released the final still images taken by the onboard High Definition Television (HDTV) from Kaguya, just before it completed its mission by impacting the moon on June 11, 2009. An entire series of images were taken with an interval of about one minute by the HDTV (Teltephoto) while Kaguya maneuvered its way to impact in Gill Crater.

Here’s a link to a Flash animation showing the images in succession. Click the “up” arrow to proceed through the images.

The last image taken is basically just black as it approached the darkened bottom of the crater. This is the second to the last image taken:

Kaguya 2nd to last image. Credit: JAXA
Kaguya 2nd to last image. Credit: JAXA

Visible is the surface of the Moon getting closer as Kaguya approached impact.

Kaguya launched on September 14, 2007 and spent nearly two years studying the moon before the planned impact. An Australian telescope observed the controlled crash of Japan’s Kaguya lunar probe into the moon Wednesday, an important warm-up act before a NASA’s LCROSS impactor attempts a similar feat in October. Here’s the series of images from Australia:

The image above shows a sequence of four frames around the impact time, with a bright impact flash visible in the second frame, and faintly seen in the third and fourth. Credit: Anglo-Australian Telescope by Jeremy Bailey (University of New South Wales) and Steve Lee (Anglo-Australian Observatory)
The image above shows a sequence of four frames around the impact time, with a bright impact flash visible in the second frame, and faintly seen in the third and fourth. Credit: Anglo-Australian Telescope by Jeremy Bailey (University of New South Wales) and Steve Lee (Anglo-Australian Observatory)

Browse through more images taken by the Kaguya HDTV Archives, the JAXA digital archives,, and the JAXA channel on YouTube.

Hat tip to Joel Raupe at Lunar Networks

7 Replies to “Last Kaguya HDTV Images Before Impact”

  4. Here we go again dumping garbage everywhere we go? Is this really nessecery?
    What sciencetific value does this have?
    Are we dense? Or what?
    We have been on the moon already and know
    the geogaphical composition of that satelite?
    There should be a moratorium on leaving
    our garbage in space! Bring it back to burn up in our own atmosphere? We done such a good job messing up our enviroment and the
    ionosphere of our home planet, to the point
    that it is hazardous to even leave this planet?
    Yes I’m mad, but in the overall cost, there
    should be an extra dollar to take your garbage
    home with you! I do condem all for not doing so! We do not own this universe we just
    renting it for our life time, it is not ours to destroy or polute! NASA get your act together
    Cleanup after your self or get out of the business! I lived for over 75 years on this planet and I should have done more to stop this arogant behaviour of these so called sciencetific experiments. This is NOT exceptable period!

  7. I’d like to point out a quibble that that particular probe is from Japan, not NASA.

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