Posted on 10/08/2020 3:33:03 PM PDT by MtnClimber
Explanation: Lighter than typically dark, smooth, mare the Mare Frigoris lies in the far lunar north. Also known as the Sea of Cold, it stretches across the familiar lunar nearside in this close up of the waxing gibbous Moon's north polar region. Dark-floored, 95 kilometer wide crater Plato is just left of the center. Sunlit peaks of the lunar Alps (Montes Alpes) are highlighted below and right of Plato, between the more southern Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains) and Mare Frigoris. The prominent straight feature cutting through the mountains is the lunar Alpine Valley (Vallis Alpes). Joining the Mare Imbrium and Mare Frigoris, the lunar valley is about 160 kilometers long and up to 10 kilometers wide.
(Excerpt) Read more at apod.nasa.gov ...
For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then zoom by moving the magnifying glass over an area and then clicking. The side bars will move the zoomed area over the photograph.
Pinging the APOD list.
If you look at the center of the photo there is a sign with Stop At Wall Drug.
You can almost see the Nazi base in the upper left quadrant.
Thanks for always uploading and pinging.
I always look forward to them.
Legend has it got the name because it’s so frigoris cold up there.
Beautiful pic. Thanks for posting it!
Weird how some regions of the Moon look so smooth, while other regions not far away are nothing but pockmarks. Trying to imagine the forces that went into that. Feel so puny on contemplation. :-)
Thankfully it didn't come out differently, e.g. "My god, it's full of dirt!"
Looks like a great place to send Prison Pods.
Very expensive lens.
World’s sharpest Tele lens! Moon, 300x zooming in! 4K, UHD, Leica 2.8/400 mm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCfDMU92JqI
Why do Moon craters, especially the larger ones, appear to be ‘flat’ across their diameters?....................
Someone please explain why all the craters seem so round/rounded. I assume that meteors can impact the Moon from all different angles, so why wouldn’t some craters look oblong?
Here is the backside of the Moon we never see. It has many more craters than the 'front'. If you look closely, a few are elongated, and not perfect circles.................
Red: I do see that, thanks, but an awful lot seem very circular. Still puzzles me.
Okay, I thought about that some more, and here’s what I come up with:
The Moon is 1/6 the mass of Earth, and therefore it’s gravity pull is 1/6 the pull of Earth.
We are at the bottom of Earth’s ‘Gravity Well’. The Moon is in the Earth’s Gravity Well also, but not at the bottom, 240k+/- miles out.
All these asteroids, meteors and comets were falling, not toward the Moon, but toward the Earth, and the Moon just got in the way.
These objects travel extremely fast, 11 km/sec to 72 km/sec (25,000 mph to 160,000 mph) [had to look that up!].
Unlike the Earth, the Moon has no appreciable atmosphere, mostly vacuum, dust and some small amount of hydrogen.
So, when a meteor is hurtling towards the Earth at fantastic speeds, suddenly it hits the Moon instead and has no atmosphere to deflect it, so it crashes at full speed. The Moon’s gravity is feeble compared to the Earth, so it’s gravity doesn’t much affect the angle at which the meteor is traveling towards Earth. Nor does it have time to do so, since the speed of the object is so enormous.
Just looking at the backside of the Moon, you can see that the Moon is our Guardian, and saved us from destruction many, many times over the eons. Just a few have gotten past the Moon-gate, and they were whoppers.
.............................
ASTEROID ATTACK: Watch biggest explosion EVER on Moon but 2012 TC4 could be bigger:
https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/825642/Moon-meteor-biggest-explosion-NASA-video-impact
VIDEO:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/video/2014/feb/24/meteorite-hits-moon-lunar-impact-video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCwzWTea4yE
Thank you. I think that’s a good answer. But then, I still wrestle with why the Moon always has the same side towards us.
I’ve read the explanation, accept it, but I have trouble reasoning it out in 3-D geometrical logic, for some reason.
I never did well on those H.S. tests where they showed you a complex 3-D object and then asked which one of four other objects represented it when turned upside down and backwards....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.