NASA, the space administration renowned for its explorations, recently captured an intriguing sight near the moon’s surface.
Is it a bird, is it a plane, or is it Superman? The recent images released by NASA would make anyone ponder. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), NASA’s space probe, captured something unusual on the moon’s surface. From afar, it looked like a thin horizontal line, much like a surfboard. Fans of Marvel Comics quickly related it to the Silver Surfer’s board, but the truth was far from fiction.
In a surprising revelation, the surfboard-like object did not belong to the realm of comics or superheroes. Nor was it a UFO. The entity belonged to South Korea. It was none other than the Danuri lunar orbiter, launched by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) captured several images of its Korean counterpart. The images were captured when the two passed each other in opposite directions between March 5 and 6, as stated by NASA.
The Danuri has been orbiting the moon since December 2022. However, the image of the Danuri got distorted due to the extremely high relative velocities between it and the LRO – about 7,200 miles per hour. As a result, the Danuri appeared smeared to ten times its size in the opposite direction of travel.
The LRO operations team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland managed to capture the glimpse of Danuri at the perfect time and place. Their achievement required “exquisite timing,” according to NASA’s comment.
In a delightful turn of events, the Danuri had captured the LRO in spring, as it passed about 11 miles above the US spacecraft on April 7.