South Korea's unmanned space vehicle Danuri has sent back vivid photos of the far side of the moon taken during its ongoing lunar orbital mission.

The science ministry and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute on Wednesday released high-resolution photos of the Tsiolkovskiy crater taken on March 22 and the Vallis Schrodinger and Szilard M craters taken two days later using a high-definition camera known as the Lunar Terrain Imager.

The Tsiolkovskiy crater, named after Soviet Union rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, has a diameter of 180 kilometers with a 32-hundred-meter-tall peak at its center.

Vallis Schrodinger is a 320 kilometer long valley that is eight to ten kilometers wide while the Szilard M is a damaged impact crater with a diameter of 23 kilometers.

The ministry expects the photos to improve the understanding of lunar surface materials and the formation of geographical features.

Following its launch in August of last year, Danuri was captured by the moon's gravity on December 27 and began its yearlong orbit.