Amazing footage of lunar probe's final moments before it crashes into Moon



Footage showing the dramatic descent of a probe minutes before it crashes into the surface of the Moon has been released by the Japanese space agency.

The final moments of the Kaguya lunar probe were caught by its on-board high-definition camera as it hurtled downwards on June 11 and as it fell the images were beamed back to Earth



As it sinks lower and lower the desolate and pockmarked landscape is seen looming ever larger as the spacecraft tumbles toward its final resting place.



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Long shadows are visible on the surface because the probe landed on the near side of the Moon in an area where the Sun had just set.

Unfortunately at the end of the sequence the film blacks out because the probe entered a 'shaded' area where there was no sunlight and as a result its impact was not recorded.

However, its disappearance was picked up back on Earth by astronomers Jeremy Bailey and Steve Lee using the Anglo-Australian Telescope in New South Wales, Australia. The probe caused a flash of light as it exploded on impact and this light was seen fading away.

The 'controlled crash' completed the Kaguya's Moon observation mission, which was launched two years ago on September 14 and cost £353million.

In that time the 3 ton probe which measured 2.1m long and 4.8m wide , carried out a survey of the moon and mapped its topography and magnetic field. Furthermore, a month after its launch it jettisoned two 110lb 'baby' satellites to create a map detailing gravitational forces.

Astonishingly, it was powered by just 3.5kW, which is equivalent to the energy used by two standard hairdryers.



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During the mission is also took clear videos of the lunar surface, breath-taking views of the Earth appearing on the horizon as the probe skims across the surface. In another stunning sequence it captures the Earth eclipsing the Sun. At first all that can be seen is blackness but then suddenly a halo appears as the Earth moves away to reveal the Sun.

Researchers hope that the data it has collected on this mission could shed further light on the Moon's origin and evolution.

The planet remains under close scrutiny as India's Chandrayaan 1 orbiter, launched in October last year, continues to circle it.

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This month Nasa launched two Moon missions of its own to find potential landing sites for human exploration. One of them is the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which today successfully entered orbit around the Moon following a five-day journey. In four days' time it will finalise its initial orbit.

Its job will be to explore the moon's craters, examining sunlit and shadowed regions, and provide understanding of the effects of lunar radiation on people. Part of its mission will be to build up three-dimensional maps of the lunar surface.

The other mission is the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), which separated from LRO soon after they launched together. LCROSS is taking a separate path to the Moon and will split into two parts once in orbit.



The first part will hit the moon near the South Pole and make a crater around a third the size of a football pitch. The second part will fly through the dust and ice raised by the impact and study them before landing several miles away.





Watch the last moments of the Japanese probe...



Watch a spectacular Earth rise observed the Kaguya probe...