Posted on 06/08/2013 4:34:06 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Explanation: Many bright nebulae and star clusters in planet Earth's sky are associated with the name of astronomer Charles Messier, from his famous 18th century catalog. His name is also given to these two large and remarkable craters on the Moon. Standouts in the dark, smooth lunar Sea of Fertility or Mare Fecunditatis, Messier (left) and Messier A have dimensions of 15 by 8 and 16 by 11 kilometers respectively. Their elongated shapes are explained by an extremely shallow-angle trajectory followed by the impactor, moving left to right, that gouged out the craters. The shallow impact also resulted in two bright rays of material extending along the surface to the right, beyond the picture. Intended to be viewed with red/blue glasses (red for the left eye), this striking stereo picture of the crater pair was recently created from high resolution scans of two images (AS11-42-6304, AS11-42-6305) taken during the Apollo 11 mission to the moon.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit: Apollo 11, NASA; Stereo Image: Patrick Vantuyne]
Wowzo, glad I found a nice pair of 3D glasses a while back. The big one:
http://129.164.179.22/apod/image/1306/MessierCrater3d_vantuyne.jpg
Surf the Universe: Click here to see a randomly selected APOD!(today's is a 3D, and the big one is linked abnve, it's *nice*.
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Sigh. Us Flatlanders will never know.
That crater has some strange features.
Almost looks like a astroid strike came in at a fairly low angle, struck, penetrated and then deflected giving the appearance of a exit wound adjacent to the first crater.
Aw, I’ve seen messier craters than that!
Nostrils.
Luckily, no numbskulls are able to run their off-road nuisances on the Moon yet — mostly luckily for them, because they’d run right into a hole like this, and pllllt! That’d be it.
Except for this off road nuisance.....lol
http://www.virginmedia.com/images/moon-buggy-apollo-431x300.jpg
Clams. Giant space clams. Make a great chowder.
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