South Korea's lunar probe captures stunning Earth, moon images - CNN

The stunning images captured by the probe showcasing Earth and the moon in black and white look like something photographer Ansel Adams might have taken had he ever enjoyed such an opportunity.

Universities and research institutes in South Korea developed the probe’s high-resolution camera to scout future landing sites, a polarized camera to analyze surface particles, an instrument to measure the lunar magnetic field and a gamma-ray spectrometer to identify elements in the lunar surface.

ShadowCam’s main objective is to take images of the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles that will help researcherssearching for ice, mapping terrain and watching for seasonal changes.

ShadowCam is several hundred times more sensitive than the cameras on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, enabling it to take detailed images in incredibly low-light conditions.

Officials atthe Korea Aerospace Research Institute, or KARI, seesthe Danuri orbiter as a “first step for ensuring and verifying its capability of space exploration,” according to the organization.

“Korea is planning to successfully land onto the surface of the Moon or asteroids and make safe return,” according to the institute.