Exploring the remnants: NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter takes clear pictures of the Apollo leftovers

NASA’s missions to the moon 40 years ago left behind remnants. With no wind or water turbulence, these remnants can still be seen today, and thanks to images received from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), we can still see the tire tracks from the first lunar rover, the landing sites, and even equipment that was left from experiments.

“When I first took a look at these images, my jaw plopped to the ground,” said Noah Petro, Research Scientist for NASA/Goddard. “When you see something that you’ve never seen before and in a quality you’ve never seen before… it really just made me speechless.”

The video shows images from the leftovers of Apollo 12, 14, and 17 missions.