posted 11-30-2015 12:57 PM               

Luna 9 made it to the moon on Feb. 3, 1966, and shortly thereafter beamed home the first images taken from the lunar surface. When pieced together, those pictures offered a panoramic view of the moon's bleak terrain and the horizon less than a mile away.

Now, nearly a half-century later, researchers are using NASA's sharp-eyed Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) in an attempt to locate the final resting place of Luna 9, which is less than 2 feet (0.6 meters) wide and weighed about 220 lbs. (100 kilograms) back on Earth.