Mare Serenitatis as seen by SMART-1

This animated sequence, composed of three images taken by the advanced Moon Imaging Experiment (AMIE) on board ESA’s SMART-1 spacecraft, shows a portion of Mare Serenitatis on the Moon.

AMIE obtained the images on 18 March 2006 from distances between 1257 and 1213 kilometres from the surface, with a ground resolution ranging between 114 and 110 metres per pixel. The imaged area is centred at about 21º East longitude and 18º North latitude. The separate images can be downloaded here [
AMI_EAE3_002082_00001_00016.JPG,
AMI_EAE3_002082_00002_00016.JPG,
AMI_EAE3_002082_00003_00015.JPG]

Mare Serenitatis is one of the lunar maria, that are vast lava plains on the lunar surface. It formed between 3.9 and 3.8 thousand million years ago, a period in which the Moon was heavily bombarded by asteroids and the major impact basins on the Moon were formed.