Nasa creates giant 867 billion pixel mosaic image of the moon

Are you a moon lover? Users can now explore the lunar surface with their mouse in the comfort of their home. Nasa has created the biggest photo ever created of the moon, where if each pixel was two metres it would cover an area equal to more than one-quarter of the US.

If one creates a complete printout at the standard 300 dots per inch (dpi), you need a square sheet of paper wider than a professional US football field and almost as long. To put it in perspective, the entire image measures 931,070 pixels square - nearly 867 billion pixels in total.

The gigantic interactive Nasa image of the lunar north pole can help budding astronomers explore the moon like never before.

Constructed from 10,581 pictures, the mosaic provides enough detail to see textures and subtle shading of lunar terrain.

Researchers used additional information about the moon's topography from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) as well as gravity information from Nasa's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission.

Nasa researchers used cameras on-board the LRO to create the high-resolution mosaic of the moon's north polar region.

"This unique image is a tremendous resource for scientists and the public alike," John Keller, LRO project scientist at Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland was quoted as saying in a Daily Mail report.

According to Mark Robinson, principal investigator for the LRO at Arizona State University, "creation of this giant mosaic took four years and a huge team effort".