What to see on the moon - good little by little. Observations of the moon and lunar mountains. South Pole-Aitken Basin

To see amazing phenomena, it is not necessary to go to other planets, you can just look at the Earth's satellite. Since the Moon is nearby and relatively easy to get to, it will likely be the first stop for future space tourists. Well, there's a lot on the moon natural wonders, which are neither on Earth nor on other planets of the solar system ...

Piri Crater

There is a small crater on the Moon called Piri, and it is located directly at the north pole. So it makes sense that it was named after Robert Peary, the Arctic explorer who was the first to reach the North Pole on Earth.

Since the Sun never rises high above the horizon at this point on the lunar surface, the bottom of the crater is always plunged into darkness. However, the sun never sets beyond some Mountain peaks around the edge of the crater. So although the crater itself and the landscape around it may be plunged into darkness, these high mountain peaks are always dazzling.

Poetic astronomers even call these peaks "Mountains of Eternal Light", and this is probably one of the most romantic names for objects in the solar system.

Copernicus crater

Visible even from Earth, Copernicus Crater is one of the most beautiful lunar sights. When viewed from Earth, it is not too far from the center of the moon. Its diameter is about 60 km, so it can be seen well even through binoculars. It is a bright crater surrounded by a white halo in the middle of a dark lunar plain.

It is comparable in size to Yellowstone Park on Earth. The edges of the crater rise half a kilometer above the surrounding plain. If you stand there, you can see the inner slopes of the crater, which go down to a depth of almost 2.5 km.

Unlike most other large lunar craters, the Copernicus crater was not filled with lava, so its bottom looks like a cup, and in its center rises a whole cluster of mountain peaks, three of which are more than 1.3 km high.

Mount Pico

Pico is a lone pyramid-shaped mountain that rises 1 mile (1.6 km) above the flat surrounding landscape. It is part of a ring of mountains that completely surrounds a giant crater.

However, unlike the Copernican crater, this crater was filled with lava, resulting in a huge flat and round plain known today as the Sea of ​​Rains. Most of the ancient mountains were buried under layers of lava, only a few peaks remained above, island-like in the stone sea.

Great Alpine Valley

The Great Alpine Valley on the Moon divides a huge mountain range in two. The valley is over 100 km long and over 7 km wide. The Alpine Valley arose when the surface of the Moon was covered with tectonic faults. opposite sides of one fault “parted” to the sides, and a valley arose between them.

The bottom of the valley was once flooded with lava that poured out of a huge wound in the lunar crust. A winding narrow channel running through the center of the valley is called a rille, originally it was a lava tube (this is a kind of tunnel through which molten rock rushes to the surface). Then the tube collapsed, and a channel appeared.

straight wall

A straight wall is a huge moon rock, or rather, a ledge. His official name sounds like Rupes Recta, from the Latin "straight rock". Like Mount Pico, the Straight Wall sits in the middle of a large, flat plain and is easy to see with a small telescope.

The wall is indeed almost perfectly straight (which is why it is sometimes called " Railway”) and its length is almost 75 km. The wall was created when a huge block of lunar crust was pushed through a long tectonic fault. The height of the Straight Wall varies from 200 to 500 m. For comparison: the height of the Great Wall of China is only 30 m.

South Pole-Aitken Basin

The South Pole-Aitken Basin is a huge crater on the Moon. Its diameter is 2500 km, depth reaches 8 km, and it is considered one of the largest craters in the solar system.

It arose as a result of a collision with an asteroid, millions of years ago. If this crater were on Earth, it would stretch from New York to Kansas City. Unfortunately for our lunar tourists, the crater is too large to be appreciated from the surface. It can only be seen in its entirety from orbit.

natural bridge

The Natural Bridge is one of the biggest and freshest surprises astronomers have discovered in the lunar landscape. The fact is that most of the natural bridges on Earth are the result of wind or water erosion. But on the moon there is neither one nor the other.

The Lunar Natural Bridge was created when a lava tube collapsed in two places, leaving an untouched area in the middle more than 60 m wide. And later, a second, smaller bridge was discovered nearby.

footprints on the moon

This image is of the Apollo 11 landing site, dubbed the Base of Balance. On July 20, 1969, for the first time in human history, NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Buzz Aldrin landed on the surface of the moon and spent a little less than a day, and only 2.5 hours on my feet.

The large bright spot in the center is the descent stage of the Lunar Module, its 120-cm platforms are barely visible. The dark circle around the module is a place trodden by astronauts. The thin strip to the right is the trail trodden by Armstrong to Little West Crater.

Many people who are passionate about space are concerned about the future prospects for space flights and exploration of various bodies in the solar system. Looking at the ice fountains of Enceladus, the volcanoes of Io and the great canyons of Mars, many people forget what wonderful places are located almost three days from Earth.

Our own satellite, the Moon, is 384,000 km away from us. This is more than 150 times closer than to the planet Mars. Due to the proximity of the satellite, it is likely to be the first stop for future space tourists. Why not? Besides the obvious tourist attractions like the Apollo 11 landing sites, there are many other natural wonders not found on Earth or other planets and moons.

Piri Crater

There is a small crater named Piri, which is located directly on the North Pole of the Moon. It is named after Robert Peary, a polar explorer who first reached the Earth's North Pole.

Due to its location, the Sun never rises high above the horizon and therefore the bottom of the crater is immersed in eternal darkness. It can only be illuminated by Earth's light reflected by the atmosphere when our planet is above the horizon. Despite this, the central and other peaks of this crater are always illuminated by the Sun. Some astronomers have dubbed these peaks "Mountains of Eternal Light", and they are probably one of the most romantic places in the solar system.

Even from Earth, the Copernicus crater is one of the moon's most beautiful sights. It is located not too far from the visual center of the Moon (recall, the Moon is always turned to the Earth on one side). Copernicus has a diameter of 58 km and is clearly visible through binoculars - a bright crater surrounded by a white halo, while located in a dark plain, which is about the same size as yellowstone park on the ground.

Standing on the edge of the crater, you are more than 0.8 km above the surrounding plain. In front of you are surrounded by the terraced slopes of the crater, from which to the bottom of the crater as much as 2.5 km! Unlike most other large craters on the Moon, Copernicus has never been filled with lava, so its bottom is deep and bowl-shaped, with forbidding peaks in the center, three of which are over 1,200 meters high.

Lonely Mountain Pico

Lonely Mount Pico rises 2.5 km above the surrounding flat lunar landscape. It is part of the ring system of mountains that once surrounded the giant crater.

Unlike Copernicus, this crater was filled with lava, resulting in a wide, flat plain called the Sea of ​​Rains. Most of the ancient mountains were buried under lava and only a few peaks remain, like islands in a sea of ​​stone.

Great Alpine Valley

The Great Alpine Valley divides the entire mountain range into two parts. The valley is 165 kilometers long and over 9 kilometers wide. The Alpine Valley was formed as a result of the formation of a huge crack on the surface, and its bottom was filled with lava.

In the middle of the valley is visible a narrow winding channel or furrow, which was originally a lava tube (a tunnel through which molten rock flowed), which collapsed after the lava left it.

Rupes Recta - a huge wall or, more precisely, a ledge. Rupes Recta is located on a smooth plain and is easily visible with a small telescope. This wall is almost perfectly straight in shape and almost 75 kilometers in size.

It was formed when a huge block of the lunar crust rose up along a fault or crack. The height of the Wall ranges from 820 to 1300 meters. By comparison, Great Chinese Wall only 9 meters high.

Aitken Basin

A geological map of the Moon showing the location of the Aitken Basin is a blue area surrounded by a dotted black line.

The Aitken Basin at the South Pole is the largest crater on the Moon. Its size is 2240 kilometers in diameter and almost 13 kilometers deep. It is also one of the largest known craters in the entire solar system.

The Aitken Basin was formed by an asteroid impact millions of years ago. If this crater were located on Earth, then it would stretch from New York to Kansas City. Unfortunately for future space tourists, this crater is too big to see from the surface and can only be appreciated from orbit.

natural bridge

The natural bridge was one of the most recent lunar surprises that astronomers have discovered. Most natural bridges on Earth are formed by wind or water erosion, but the Moon lacks both.

In this case, the bridge was created when a lava tube collapsed in two places, leaving a gap of more than 60 meters in length and width. Also, astronomers found a smaller bridge nearby.

Illustrated by Ron Miller

Since the earliest times, billions of eyes have gazed into the night sky, people have tried to unravel the mystery of the silent satellite that illuminated their path. The moon is not only our closest space neighbor, it is an integral part of our life, accompanying us everywhere with its mysterious light, which is mentioned in poetry and prose, films and music, hundreds of legends and mystical stories.

Her alluring light from ancient times riveted attention ordinary people and great scientists who tried to unravel its eternal riddle.

Scientists of the past in unraveling the mystery

The first attempts to understand the nature of the moon, leaving aside myths and legends, were made by the ancient Greek writer Plutarch, who tried to unravel the mystery of lunar spots.

One of the great people who made an invaluable contribution to unraveling eternal mystery- Leonardo da Vinci. He, however, possessing knowledge far ahead of the time in which he lived, was no less a mystery to his contemporaries and subsequent generations. He suggested that the Moon is similar to the Earth and proposed a theory that explained the glow of the Moon. The ashen light of the moon is an amazing phenomenon: we see the whole celestial body, although the Sun illuminates only part of it. At the same time, the part of the surface of the Moon, on which the direct sunlight does not fall, has a characteristic ashy tint. This effect is known today as the da Vinci glow. The scientist immortalized his name, presented progressive ideas for consideration at a time when mankind had no idea that the Earth revolves around the Sun.

The great astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, with his immortal work "On the Revolution of the Celestial Circles", in which he pointed out that the Earth is a celestial body and one of the planets, brought closer the resolution of the question of the nature of the Moon.

Galileo Galilei, without any doubt, became the first scientist who made a huge breakthrough in the minds of mankind regarding the appearance of the surface of the moon. He described the relief of the moon and made a grandiose discovery about the presence of mountains and mountain ranges. For his research, he invented a homemade pipe that allowed him to discover the unknown lunar world. Unable to conduct more detailed studies, he perceived the dark spots on the Moon as seas and erroneously asserted that the Moon and the Earth were completely identical, assuming that the former had both air and water. Fourteen seas are still represented on lunar maps, occupying almost half of its surface. Although now everyone knows that all these "seas" do not contain a drop of water and are flat areas among many mountains and mountain ranges, regarding which the brilliant scientist was not mistaken in the least. It was Galileo who invented a method for determining the height of mountains on the Moon based on the length of the shadows they cast, stretching in the direction opposite to that from where the Sun's glow comes from and emphasizing the relief of the lunar surface. He also discovered and named two mountain ranges- the famous lunar Alps and the Apennines.

The study of the lunar mountains was continued by the Italian astronomer Riccioli, who in 1651 published a map of the moon. Although he himself did not take an active part in observations, we can still observe his direct participation in the process of designating many parts of the lunar landscape, since the names given to him have been preserved on many lunar maps. He even named one of the mountains by his own name.

Lunar relief

At present, when we observe the Moon through binoculars or a small telescope, we can see that its surface consists of two distinct types of terrain: dark flat plains and a bright one covered with numerous craters of various sizes.

Earlier, as already mentioned, the dark spots of the plains were taken for the seas, since at that time they did not suspect that there was no water on the dry, airless surface of the Moon, so they called them maria, which in Latin means sea.

The mountains on the Moon have a peculiar ring shape and are of two types: circuses and craters.

The ways of their formation differ from earthly processes. On our planet, mountain ranges are formed in one of the following ways:

• tectonic - collision with each other of the plates that form the surface of the Earth (most mountains and mountain peaks have this origin)
• volcanic - the formation of mountains under the influence of hot magma rising from the depths of the Earth into volcanoes.

The process of formation of lunar mountains is a question that has long been of concern to scientists and causes controversy.

There are two hypotheses:

• According to one of them, the first mountains on the Moon arose as a result of giant asteroid impacts in the distant past, of which there were a huge number in the solar system at the dawn of history. Under the influence of these impacts, craters much larger than those that we see today were formed on its surface. They are, according to this theory, the so-called "seas".
• However, there is also a hypothesis volcanic origin mountains Its supporters believe that the mountains formed in the zones of subsidence or subsidence of the surface during the heating of the lunar interior.

What mountains are on the moon?

Let's find out more about this. How do you feel about the idea of ​​lunar climbing? We don't even need spacesuits, just your imagination.

And individual mountains are designated by Latin names: montes - mountain ranges and mons - individual mountains. And we'll start from the landing site of the last manned lunar explorer, Apollo 17. In this place are the Taurus Mountains (Montes Taurus), located to the east of the Sea of ​​Clarity. Two major mountain ranges share two other features of the lunar landscape. The Sea of ​​Clarity is separated from the Sea of ​​Souls by the Caucasus Mountains in the north, and in the south by the Apennines. Mount Hadley is visible at their intersection, named after the British inventor and mathematician John Hadley (1682-1743). The Lunar Alps surround the ideal oval crater Plato in the northwest.

On the barren surface of the Sea of ​​Rains are the two most impressive single mountain peaks Piton and Pico. The python has a base with a diameter of 25 km and a height of 2250 m above the surrounding plain. Even more striking is Pico, with a base of 15x25 km and a height of 2400 m. Both are named after mountains on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands.

Although these mountains look amazing against the backdrop of a soft glow rising sun, in fact, they are still quite flat compared to those on Earth. But this does not prevent us from admiring them during an imaginary walk on the moon.

List of mountains on the Moon

Based on data from various sources, the most famous mountains in the northeast is:

• Alps (Montes Alpes);
• (Vallis Alpes);
• Caucasus (Montes Caucasus);
• Apennines (Montes Apenninus);
• Hemus Mountains (Montes Haemus);
• Taurus Mountains (Montes Taurus).

In the southeast, the Pyrenees (Montes Pyrenaeus) are most noticeable.

In the South-West:

• Straight Wall (Rupes Recta);
• (Montes Riphaeus).

In North-west:

• Schroeter Valley (Vallis Schroteri);
• Jura Mountains (Montes Jura).

The height of the mountains on the moon at some points reaches eight kilometers.

Located on the edge of the Sea of ​​Rains and its highest point is at an altitude of 5.5 km from sea level. Included in mountain system lunar Apennines and is the most high mountain on the moon (however, not the most high point). The most high part Huygens is located in a bright crater zone to the right of the Ampère peak.

The mountain was named after the Dutch astronomer, mathematician and physician Christian Huygens.

Mount Tycho on the Moon

It is impossible to ignore this mountain, named after the Danish scientist Tycho Brahe in 1961 by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Riccioli.

It is a brilliant dot with rays diverging in all directions on the lower side of the moon. According to the existing version, the longest ray of the Tycho crater divides the Sea of ​​​​Clarity and extends for 4000 km from the crater. The majestic Mount Tycho is a crater with a diameter of 95 km. During the full moon, you can observe Tycho in all its splendor: it emits such a dazzling light that it seems to permeate the Universe and delight many researchers.

Will the dream come true

You can wander on the moon indefinitely, but our journey is coming to an end for today, although no one bothers us to continue it - after all, this can be done at any moment, just by looking at the starry sky.

And who knows, maybe someday anyone who wants to will have the opportunity to actually do it and touch with their own hands the alluring cold of these mysterious lunar mountains. Fantastic? But people in old times and could not imagine that someday a human foot would set foot on the surface of the moon.

But first, a photograph of the Moon with the announcement and location of those objects that will be discussed in this article:

Probably the most famous crater on the moon, many do not know its name, but they definitely see it on the moon. It can be "guessed" even with the naked eye on a full moon, because on a full moon it is the brightest spot on the moon due to the rays emanating from the crater up to 1500 km in length


The crater was formed on the moon about 100 million years ago, with an average diameter of 85 km and a maximum depth of almost 5 km. By lunar standards, the crater is considered young. In the approximation of 5000 mm, the stepped structure of the inner shaft on the walls of the crater is clearly drawn. And also the central hill of the crater is divided into separate rocks, which reaches a height of about 2 km.

I think that the second most recognizable is the Copernicus crater. It is clearly visible, both in the full moon and in other phases of the moon, when illuminated by the light of the sun. Its good visibility is due to the fact that the crater is located in the middle of the Ocean of Storms, in dark volcanic rock, and those emissions that appeared as a result of the collision have a lighter color, due to which it contrasts on the surface of the Moon.


In my opinion, a very interesting crater. At different phases of the moon, it looks completely different, due to the play of light and shadows. This time it was almost completely lit, and it seems a little flat, but the shadows do not hide all of its internal terrace-like structure. The age is estimated at 800 million years, almost 4 km deep and about 96 km in diameter. Around Copernicus, you can observe a huge network of secondary small craters formed by fragments rocks as a result of the explosion during the fall of the meteorite that created Copernicus. An interesting detail is that the Apollo 12 astronauts took soil samples from the ray structure of this crater.

In its visible nature, it is very similar to Copernicus, and they are located in the neighborhood.


The crater is relatively small, about 30 km in diameter and 2.5 km deep. But due to the dark basalt plateau of the Ocean of Storms and the Sea of ​​Islands, it stands out strongly on the surface of the Moon with its bright ray system.

4) Clavius ​​Crater
The most beautiful crater on the moon. Beautiful precisely because of its structure of secondary craters, easily recognizable, reminds me of a funny cartoon face.


Is located south pole Moon, under Tycho crater. It is a very ancient crater with an age of about 4 billion years, a diameter of 230 km and medium depth about 2 km, and the maximum is about 5. The two craters that hit the moon later and broke the walls of Clavius ​​are called Porter (upper) and Rutherford (lower). They have almost the same size at 50 km in diameter.
An interesting feature of Clavius ​​is its bottom. It is quite flat except for the fall of younger meteorites. A little to the left of the center of the crater is the "central hill", which for some reason is offset from the center. It is assumed that the bottom of the crater was formed much later than its formation.

A crater with a very interesting bottom, with numerous furrows and faults


Located on the northern edge of the Sea of ​​Humidity. Ancient destroyed crater with a diameter of 110 km. and relatively shallow depth: 1.5 km. Against this background, the central hill looks higher than the walls of the crater, although in fact its height is slightly less than 1400 meters. The structured crater floor owes its appearance to the formation of the Humidity Sea. During this period, the crater underwent lava corrosion.

A small round lunar sea with a diameter of 420 km.


The age is estimated at about 4 billion years. It is flooded with trapped lava, the depth of which reaches 3 km. Interesting craters on south side seas are the Vitello crater (pictured a little lower and to the right of the center), central part which resembles a podium on which the peak of the crater is located. And the almost completely destroyed Doppelmaeyr crater, with a central peak with even triangular sides.

Ancient crater, located slightly to the left and above the Clavius ​​crater


The diameter is almost 150 km, the depth is 4.5 km. By nature, it resembles Clavius. The central slide is also shifted to the left of the center. Presumably, the bottom of the crater was formed in the same way after the formation of the crater itself.

Unusual lunar formation. Many hypotheses about the artificial origin of this wall went on the Internet.


In fact, this is a tectonic fault on the moon. The length of the wall reaches 120 km. Presumably the height of the wall is from 200 to 400 meters. It is best to observe the wall on the 8th or 22nd day of the moon's rise.
Other objects in the picture: to the left of the wall you can see a crack in the form of a worm, about 50 km long, with rounded ends. The crack was formed, most likely, from lava flows. And the largest craters: Arzakhel above, below the double crater Febit and the ancient crater at the bottom of the photo - Purbakh.

9) Furrows of Hyginus and Ariadeus
education mysterious origin- long furrows on the surface of the moon, as well as chains of lunar craters. It is especially puzzling when chains of lunar craters line up exactly with the furrow, as seen in this photo.


The Ariadeus furrow (right band in the image) reaches a length of 250 km. It is one of the most famous furrows on the visible part of the lunar surface. The origin of the furrow is not known. Presumably - the result of lava flows.
Hygin's furrow, located on the left side of the photo. No less long furrow - 203 km in length. It is interesting in that the chain of craters exactly coincided with the direction of the furrow itself. According to the theory of probability, such an event is negligible, or rather impossible. Not only are crater chains rare and mysterious phenomenon(may be formed from the tail of comets) so that this chain hits the furrow and turns in the direction exactly like the furrow, this is really not explained at the moment.

Romantic harbor on the moon. It's a pity, instead of the sea, dried and hardened lava.


It was originally huge impact crater with a diameter of 250 km. Now southeastern part the bay is connected to the sea of ​​rains. The edges of the rainbow bay form Cape Laplace in the north, 2.5 km high, and Cape Heraclid in the south, 1.3 km high. And the ramparts of the former crater are called the Jura Mountains or the Jura Mountains. The height of these mountains reaches three kilometers. The formation of the bay is commensurate with the formation of the sea of ​​​​rains, this is approximately 3.5-4 billion years ago. However, near the shores of the bay there is an older magma that differs in color from the main solidified magma of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bRains, which may indicate an earlier origin of Rainbow Bay. The bay is located on the northern hemisphere of the moon and is visible even to the naked eye. The bay was visited by the Soviet Lunokhod 1 in 1970 and the Chinese lunar rover Chanye 3 in 2013.

11) Plato Crater and Alpine Valley
Photo of another interesting part of the surface of the Moon (the original is 1214 pixels wide by clicking on it)


This site is interesting both with the Plato crater and with the mountain network of the lunar Alps.
Almost 4 billion years old Plato crater, 100 km in diameter and 2 km deep, has a very flat bottom filled with magma. There was not even a trace of the central hill of the crater, and its walls collapsed due to lava exposure. Surprisingly, large meteorites did not fall to the bottom of the crater in later periods. At 5000 mm, only a few small craters can be distinguished in its area. From north side crater you can see the "furrow of Plato", reminiscent of a winding river bed. Presumably, the meteorite that formed the crater fell into the mountain range, thereby completely destroying them.
The Alps and the Alpine Valley, which are located to the right of Plato, form lunar mountains, separating them with a huge canyon. This canyon is the Alpine Valley.
As suggested, the Alps were formed as a result of the fall of an asteroid. most high mountain The lunar Alps were called Mont Blanc, by analogy with the terrestrial Alps. On the moon, Mont Blanc is more than three kilometers high. And all mountain network in length is about 260 km from average height mountains 2.5 km. But the main attraction of the Alps, of course, is the Alpine Valley. This valley extends for 160 km with an average width of 10 km. Scientists explain the formation of the valley as a graben formed as a result of the subsidence of the lunar crust along a fault that appeared during the formation of the Sea of ​​Rains basin, and subsequently the depression was filled with lava. At the bottom of the valley there is a narrow furrow no more than 1 km wide (only the central part of this furrow was recorded in the photo), it stretches for almost 140 km.

12) North Pole of the Moon
The north pole of the moon is completely covered with craters of various diameters.


But what's interesting about the north pole? And the fact that NASA experts discovered frozen water, that is, ice, in 40 craters of the north pole of the moon. There are no samples yet, and evidence for the existence of ice is based on analyzes by the LRO orbital station and the Russian LEND instrument, as well as the LCROSS and Chandrayaan-1 stations.
Recognizable craters at the north pole are Anaxagora and Goldschmidt. The latter is an ancient ruined crater 115 km in size and 3.5 km deep. Anaxagoras is a relatively young crater, 1 billion years old, 50 km in size and three kilometers deep. In the photograph, they are lower and to the left of the center, recognizable by the fact that the meteorite that formed Anaxagoras fell on the western wall of Goldschmidt.

13) Crater Herschel J. and Harpal
Two well-marked craters near the north pole. They are located above the rainbow bay.


The crater Herschel J. (pictured on the right side) almost collapsed and disappeared. Its walls are no longer as clear as those of young craters. Today, the crater is only 900 meters deep and 155 km in diameter.
The Garpal crater (pictured left) is a young impact crater. 40 km in diameter, 3.5 km deep. and the central slide is only 350 meters.

14) Craters Archimedes, Autolycus and Aristillus
Three known lunar craters.


The lowest crater in the photo is Archimedes. Age 3.5 billion years, diameter 81 km and depth 1.5 km. Located in the Sea of ​​Rains. Like the Plato crater, its bottom is filled with lava and is therefore fairly flat with a few small craters. Archimedes has a system of furrows, the photograph shows how barely noticeable lines going north for more than 150 km.
The middle crater is Autolycus. 40 km in diameter and 3.5 km deep. Age estimated at 1 to 2 billion years
The upper crater is Aristillus. About the same age as Autolycus, a little wider, about 55 km in diameter, and a little less depth - 3.3 km.
An interesting detail of the image is the system of furrows in the lower right part. These are the Hadley furrows bordering on mountain ranges Apennines. The furrow is 116 km long and about 1.2 km wide. with a depth of 300 meters. It is assumed that the furrow was formed as a result of underground lava flows with subsequent collapse of the ceiling.

That's all. In conclusion, I want to show how these objects are located on the full moon for greater recognition:


Click for larger size available. Full moon photo taken in 2011

I really hope that now it will be even more interesting for you to look at the Moon, especially on warm evenings and nights. And maybe you can share with someone what you learned today :)

A little about technical side filming. All photographs were taken with a Celestron SCT 8" reflex lens with an aperture of 203 mm and f / 10 aperture. The focal length of 5000 mm was achieved using a Televue Powermate 2.5x teletender. Videos were recorded on a VAC-136 black and white camera in the infrared spectrum with an Astronomic IR filter -pass 742.
Processing was carried out in the programs:
1) frame stacking - AutoStakkert 2. Registax 6
2) sharpening (deconvolution and wavelets) - AstroImage 3 Pro
3) final histogram color correction - Photoshop CS
PS: why not single frames and not a "reflex camera" can be read

The science

If you are interested in astronomy, then of course you love to look into the night sky and admire the Moon, planets and stars. It turns out that in the coming days you have the opportunity take a good look at our nearest space object- the beautiful Moon and see the curious mountains on it.

If you look at our satellite, armed with a telescope or at least binoculars, the first thing you notice is that the lunar surface has two completely different types landscape. Large dark valleys side by side with bright mountainous hills. Both of these landscapes are strewn with traces of meteor impacts - a huge number of craters of various sizes.

Early lunar observers assumed that large flat valleys are seas. At that time, it was not yet known that liquid water does not exist on the dry, airless surface of the Moon. But the name remains. These valleys are called "mare" which in Latin means "seas".

Sea of ​​Clarity

How are mountains formed?

The lunar hills were named after terrestrial mountains, although the mountains on the moon were formed in a completely different way from the terrestrial ones. Earth's mountains are formed by two different processes. Most mountains or mountain ranges are formed due to tectonic processes: tectonic plates collide with each other, causing the rocks to rise up.

Other types of mountains are formed by volcanic activity: hot magma rises to the surface from the bowels of the Earth and pours out, forming volcanic mountains.

Secrets of the mountains on the moon

No on the moon tectonic plates and no volcanoes. Almost all lunar mountains are the result of asteroid impacts in the distant past. At that time, there were a huge number of giant asteroids in the solar system, some of which collided with the moon and planets.

As a result of the collisions, craters were formed, which were much larger in size than those that we can observe today. Thus the lunar seas were formed, and the edges of these craters are today lunar mountain ranges.

Lifeless moon mountains

Incredibly high temperature, which was the result of collisions, melted the material of the lunar surface and made it flow, flooding some of the craters and mountains that today look like ruins on the surface of the lunar seas.

This week, with a simple technique, you can see some curious mountains and craters on the surface of the moon. The largest craters are as follows: Aristotle, Plato, Archimedes And Copernicus.

Far to the east of these craters are Taurus mountains, in the area of ​​​​which the last expedition to the moon landed "Apollo 17".

Observations of the moon and lunar mountains

Two major mountain ranges separate the two lunar seas: sea ​​of ​​clarity from Seas of Rains. These chains are named after the earth's mountain ranges: Caucasus And Apennines. Between these two mountain ranges located Mount Hadley, named after the inventor and mathematician John Hadley (1682–1743). In July 1971 the mission "Apollo 15" landed on this mountain. Lunar Alps are located in the northwest and surround the oval Plato's crater.

Apollo 15 mission with Mount Hadley in the background

On a barren surface Seas of Rains the two most impressive lunar mountains are located: Python And Pico.

Mount Python has a base diameter 25 kilometers and rises above the valley at the level 2250 meters. Mount Pico even more impressive: its foundation is drawn up 15-25 kilometers in diameter and height 2400 meters. These mountains were named after the mountains on the island of Tenerife in the Canary archipelago.

Plato Crater and Mount Pico

Although these mountains look very impressive in the light of the rising sun, they are quite low compared to the mountains on planet Earth. If you go back to observing in a couple of days, the mountains will become almost invisible.