This insane image of the Moon was actually taken from Earth

A test of a powerful new space imaging instrument has given us a gloriously detailed new perspective of the Apollo 15 moon landing site.

By bouncing a powerful radar signal off the lunar surface, the new instrument was able to achieve spectacular resolution, showing objects as small as 5 meters (16.4 feet).

Designed for the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia by Raytheon Intelligence & Space, this proof-of-concept technology paves the way for even more powerful radar imaging in the future, potentially allowing scientists to study objects even as far away as Neptune.

Radar imagery of the Moon is not a new idea, however. It is an extraordinarily useful tool for revealing fine structures on the surface and, at longer wavelengths, even probing more than 10 meters below the surface to observe variations in regolith density (here on Earth, this technology can help us find buried ruins).

But the Green Bank Observatory, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and Raytheon Intelligence & Space are trying to push the technology even further.

(Sophia Dagnello, NRAO / GBO / Raytheon / AUI / NSF / USGS)

In a test in November last year, the new transmitter sent a radar signal to the Moon, specifically targeting the Apollo 15 landing site – a small patch of the Moon, on a disk of 3,474.2 kilometers (2158.8 miles) in diameter, hundreds of thousands of kilometers.

This signal, when it bounced back, was collected by the Very Long Baseline Array. This is a collection of radio telescopes from across the United States, essentially combining to create a continent-sized collection dish.

The image below is the result. This divot in the upper middle is a crater called Hadley C, about four miles in diameter. Winding past is the Hadley Rille, seen as a collapsed lava tube.

(NRAO / GBO / Raytheon / NSF / AUI)

Believe it or not, however, it’s not even half. Now that they have successfully proven the concept, the team will be working on an even more powerful transmitter: a high-powered 500 kilowatt radar system that will allow them to see in even more incredible detail.

This tool would be useful for all kinds of science. We could see our Moon up close, of course. We could see the moons of other planets. It could even be used to image passing asteroids and space debris, which are too faint to be seen using optical telescopes, but which we can probe using radar technology.

This could help us better understand the population of objects – natural and man-made – in near-Earth space, which in turn could aid planetary defense against potentially dangerous objects.

“The planned system will be a leap forward in radar science, allowing access to unheard of features of the solar system from here on Earth,” said site director Karen O’Neil of the observatory of the Green bank.

And if it gives us even more incredible images of the Moon, we are so here for it.