Chandrayaan-1 sends images of moon's coldest, darkest craters

Using a Nasa radar flying aboard India's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, scientists are getting their first look inside the moon's coldest and darkest craters.

The Mini-SAR instrument, a lightweight, synthetic aperture radar, has passed its initial in-flight tests and sent back its first data, Nasa said.

The images show the floors of permanently-shadowed polar craters on the moon that aren't visible from Earth. Scientists are using the instrument to map and search the insides of the craters for "water ice".