Rayed Craters

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Rayed Craters What They Are When To See Them Rayed craters are impact craters on the moon with Tycho: The ray system is best seen for about 3 streaks of material extending away from them. days before and after full moon. Usually the material is lighter in color than the rest of the surface of the moon. Look carefully and Proclus: Proclus & its rays are best from about 6 you’ll find many more rayed lunar craters than the to 16 days after new moon. ones listed here! Messier A: The ray of Messier A is best from about 6 to 8 days after new, and again about 16 to 17 days after new. Not easy! Where They Are Rayed craters can be found all over the moon’s face, but these are three of the most interesting. Tycho: Located somewhat south of the moon’s rough Great Peninsula, this crater is about 50 miles in diameter with a ray system that extends over much of the near side of the moon! Proclus: This bright 17 mile wide crater with a small ray system is found on the western rim of Mare Crisium. Messier A: This small 7 mile wide crater is found west of the center of Mare Fecunditatus. Just to its east is the near twin crater Messier. This will be a challenge to find! Why They’re Cool Tycho’s extensive ray system extends over 900 miles in some places. The rays lie on top of other features, indicating that the rays are younger than those other features. The rays of Proclus are not symmetrical, forming a “butterfly pattern” probably indicating that the impactor hit at a low angle. Perhaps surprisingly, research shows that in a butterfly pattern the biggest rays extend at about right angles to the direction from which the impactor approached. The Messier A ray system extends westward as a line. Messier and Messier A may have formed in the same, very low angle impact. Very large telescopes show Messier with a butterfly pattern ray system and Messier A with a linear system. Perhaps the impactor formed Messier then its remains formed Messier A and its ray. Lafayette Science Museum, 433 Jefferson Street, Lafayette, LA 70501, 337-291-5544-www.lafayettesciencemuseum.org .

Copy Link

Recommended publications

New Candidate Pits and Caves at High Latitudes on the Near Side of the Moon
52nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference 2021 (LPI Contrib. No. 2548) 2733.pdf NEW CANDIDATE PITS AND CAVES AT HIGH LATITUDES ON THE NEAR SIDE OF THE MOON. 1,2 1,3,4 1 2 Wynnie Avent II and Pascal Lee , S ETI Institute, Mountain View, VA, USA, V irginia Polytechnic Institute 3 4 and State University Blacksburg, VA, USA. M ars Institute, N ASA Ames Research Center. Summary: 35 new candidate pits are identified in Anaxagoras and Philolaus, two high-latitude impact structures on the near side of the Moon. Introduction: Since the discovery in 2009 of the Marius Hills Pit (Haruyama et al. 2009), a.k.a. the “Haruyama Cavern”, over 300 hundred pits have been identified on the Moon (Wagner & Robinson 2014, Robinson & Wagner 2018). Lunar pits are small (10 to 150 m across), steep-walled, negative relief features (topographic depressions), surrounded by funnel-shaped outer slopes and, unlike impact craters, no raised rim. They are interpreted as collapse features resulting from the fall of the roof of shallow (a few Figure 1: Location of studied craters (Polar meters deep) subsurface voids, generally lava cavities. projection). Although pits on the Moon are found in mare basalt, impact melt deposits, and highland terrain of the >300 Methods: Like previous studies searching for pits pits known, all but 16 are in impact melts (Robinson & (Wagner & Robinson 2014, Robinson & Wagner 2018, Wagner 2018). Many pits are likely lava tube skylights, Lee 2018a,b,c), we used imaging data collected by the providing access to underground networks of NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Narrow tunnel-shaped caves, including possibly complex Angle Camera (NAC).
[Show full text]
Exploring the Bombardment History of the Moon
EXPLORING THE BOMBARDMENT HISTORY OF THE MOON Community White Paper to the Planetary Decadal Survey, 2011-2020 September 15, 2009 Primary Author: William F. Bottke Center for Lunar Origin and Evolution (CLOE) NASA Lunar Science Institute at the Southwest Research Institute 1050 Walnut St., Suite 300 Boulder, CO 80302 Tel: (303) 546-6066 [email protected] Co-Authors/Endorsers: Carlton Allen (NASA JSC) Mahesh Anand (Open U., UK) Nadine Barlow (NAU) Donald Bogard (NASA JSC) Gwen Barnes (U. Idaho) Clark Chapman (SwRI) Barbara A. Cohen (NASA MSFC) Ian A. Crawford (Birkbeck College London, UK) Andrew Daga (U. North Dakota) Luke Dones (SwRI) Dean Eppler (NASA JSC) Vera Assis Fernandes (Berkeley Geochronlogy Center and U. Manchester) Bernard H. Foing (SMART-1, ESA RSSD; Dir., Int. Lunar Expl. Work. Group) Lisa R. Gaddis (US Geological Survey) 1 Jim N. Head (Raytheon) Fredrick P. Horz (LZ Technology/ESCG) Brad Jolliff (Washington U., St Louis) Christian Koeberl (U. Vienna, Austria) Michelle Kirchoff (SwRI) David Kring (LPI) Harold F. (Hal) Levison (SwRI) Simone Marchi (U. Padova, Italy) Charles Meyer (NASA JSC) David A. Minton (U. Arizona) Stephen J. Mojzsis (U. Colorado) Clive Neal (U. Notre Dame) Laurence E. Nyquist (NASA JSC) David Nesvorny (SWRI) Anne Peslier (NASA JSC) Noah Petro (GSFC) Carle Pieters (Brown U.) Jeff Plescia (Johns Hopkins U.) Mark Robinson (Arizona State U.) Greg Schmidt (NASA Lunar Science Institute, NASA Ames) Sen. Harrison H. Schmitt (Apollo 17 Astronaut; U. Wisconsin-Madison) John Spray (U. New Brunswick, Canada) Sarah Stewart-Mukhopadhyay (Harvard U.) Timothy Swindle (U. Arizona) Lawrence Taylor (U. Tennessee-Knoxville) Ross Taylor (Australian National U., Australia) Mark Wieczorek (Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, France) Nicolle Zellner (Albion College) Maria Zuber (MIT) 2 The Moon is unique.
[Show full text]
Lab # 12: Surface of the Moon
Name: Date: 12 Surface of the Moon 12.1 Introduction One can learn a lot about the Moon by looking at the lunar surface. Even before astronauts landed on the Moon, scientists had enough data to formulate theories about the formation and evolution of the Earth’s only natural satellite. However, since the Moon rotates once for every time it orbits around the Earth, we can only see one side of the Moon from the surface of the Earth. Until spacecraft were sent to orbit the Moon, we only knew half the story. The type of orbit our Moon makes around the Earth is called a synchronous orbit. This phenomenon is shown graphically in Figure 12.1 below. If we imagine that there is one large mountain on the hemisphere facing the Earth (denoted by the small triangle on the Moon), then this mountain is always visible to us no matter where the Moon is in its orbit. As the Moon orbits around the Earth, it turns slightly so we always see the same hemisphere. Figure 12.1: The Moon’s synchronous orbit. (Not drawn to scale.) On the Moon, there are extensive lava ﬂows, rugged highlands and many impact craters of all sizes. The overlapping of these features implies relative ages. Because of the lack of ongoing mountain building processes, or weathering by wind and water, the accumulation of volcanic processes and impact cratering is readily visible. Thus by looking at the images of the Moon, one can trace the history of the lunar surface. 129 Lab Goals: to discuss the Moon’s terrain, craters, and the theory of relative ages; to • use pictures of the Moon to deduce relative ages and formation processes of surface features Materials: Moon pictures, ruler, calculator • 12.2 Craters and Maria A crater is formed when a meteor from space strikes the lunar surface.
[Show full text]
Glossary Glossary
Glossary Glossary Albedo A measure of an object’s reflectivity. A pure white reflecting surface has an albedo of 1.0 (100%). A pitch-black, nonreflecting surface has an albedo of 0.0. The Moon is a fairly dark object with a combined albedo of 0.07 (reflecting 7% of the sunlight that falls upon it). The albedo range of the lunar maria is between 0.05 and 0.08. The brighter highlands have an albedo range from 0.09 to 0.15. Anorthosite Rocks rich in the mineral feldspar, making up much of the Moon’s bright highland regions. Aperture The diameter of a telescope’s objective lens or primary mirror. Apogee The point in the Moon’s orbit where it is furthest from the Earth. At apogee, the Moon can reach a maximum distance of 406,700 km from the Earth. Apollo The manned lunar program of the United States. Between July 1969 and December 1972, six Apollo missions landed on the Moon, allowing a total of 12 astronauts to explore its surface. Asteroid A minor planet. A large solid body of rock in orbit around the Sun. Banded crater A crater that displays dusky linear tracts on its inner walls and/or floor. 250 Basalt A dark, fine-grained volcanic rock, low in silicon, with a low viscosity. Basaltic material fills many of the Moon’s major basins, especially on the near side. Glossary Basin A very large circular impact structure (usually comprising multiple concentric rings) that usually displays some degree of flooding with lava. The largest and most conspicuous lava- flooded basins on the Moon are found on the near side, and most are filled to their outer edges with mare basalts.
[Show full text]
TRANSIENT LUNAR PHENOMENA: REGULARITY and REALITY Arlin P
The Astrophysical Journal, 697:1–15, 2009 May 20 doi:10.1088/0004-637X/697/1/1 C 2009. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. TRANSIENT LUNAR PHENOMENA: REGULARITY AND REALITY Arlin P. S. Crotts Department of Astronomy, Columbia University, Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, 550 West 120th Street, New York, NY 10027, USA Received 2007 June 27; accepted 2009 February 20; published 2009 April 30 ABSTRACT Transient lunar phenomena (TLPs) have been reported for centuries, but their nature is largely unsettled, and even their existence as a coherent phenomenon is controversial. Nonetheless, TLP data show regularities in the observations; a key question is whether this structure is imposed by processes tied to the lunar surface, or by terrestrial atmospheric or human observer effects. I interrogate an extensive catalog of TLPs to gauge how human factors determine the distribution of TLP reports. The sample is grouped according to variables which should produce differing results if determining factors involve humans, and not reﬂecting phenomena tied to the lunar surface. Features dependent on human factors can then be excluded. Regardless of how the sample is split, the results are similar: ∼50% of reports originate from near Aristarchus, ∼16% from Plato, ∼6% from recent, major impacts (Copernicus, Kepler, Tycho, and Aristarchus), plus several at Grimaldi. Mare Crisium produces a robust signal in some cases (however, Crisium is too large for a “feature” as deﬁned). TLP count consistency for these features indicates that ∼80% of these may be real. Some commonly reported sites disappear from the robust averages, including Alphonsus, Ross D, and Gassendi.
[Show full text]
Sky and Telescope
SkyandTelescope.com The Lunar 100 By Charles A. Wood Just about every telescope user is familiar with French comet hunter Charles Messier's catalog of fuzzy objects. Messier's 18th-century listing of 109 galaxies, clusters, and nebulae contains some of the largest, brightest, and most visually interesting deep-sky treasures visible from the Northern Hemisphere. Little wonder that observing all the M objects is regarded as a virtual rite of passage for amateur astronomers. But the night sky offers an object that is larger, brighter, and more visually captivating than anything on Messier's list: the Moon. Yet many backyard astronomers never go beyond the astro-tourist stage to acquire the knowledge and understanding necessary to really appreciate what they're looking at, and how magnificent and amazing it truly is. Perhaps this is because after they identify a few of the Moon's most conspicuous features, many amateurs don't know where Many Lunar 100 selections are plainly visible in this image of the full Moon, while others require to look next. a more detailed view, different illumination, or favorable libration. North is up. S&T: Gary The Lunar 100 list is an attempt to provide Moon lovers with Seronik something akin to what deep-sky observers enjoy with the Messier catalog: a selection of telescopic sights to ignite interest and enhance understanding. Presented here is a selection of the Moon's 100 most interesting regions, craters, basins, mountains, rilles, and domes. I challenge observers to find and observe them all and, more important, to consider what each feature tells us about lunar and Earth history.
[Show full text]
Lunariceprospecting V1.0.Pdf
WHITE PAPER Ice Prospecting: Your Guide to Getting Rich on the Moon Version 1.0 // May 2019 // This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Kevin M. Cannon ([email protected]) Introduction Water ice has been detected indirectly and directly within permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) at both poles of the Moon. This ice is stable against sublimation on billion-year timescales, and represents an attractive target for mining to produce oxygen and hydrogen for propellant, and water and oxygen for human life support. However, the mere presence of ice at the poles does not provide much information: Where is it exactly? How much is there? Is it thick layers of pure ice, or small amounts mixed in the soil? How hard is it to excavate? This white paper attempts to offer answers to these questions based on interpretations of the best data currently available. New prospecting missions in the future–particularly landers and Figure 1. Ice accumulation mechanisms. rovers–will continue to change and improve our understanding of ice on the Moon. This guide will be updated on an ongoing expected to be old. (2) Solar wind. The solar wind is a stream of basis to incorporate new findings. electrons, protons and other particles that are constantly colliding with the unprotected surface of the Moon. This Why is there ice on the Moon? process can create individual OH and H2O molecules that are Two factors create conditions that allow ice to accumulate able to ballistically hop across the surface, eventually migrating and persist at the lunar poles: (1) the Moon has a very small axial to the PSRs.
[Show full text]
Rare Astronomical Sights and Sounds
Jonathan Powell Rare Astronomical Sights and Sounds The Patrick Moore The Patrick Moore Practical Astronomy Series More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/3192 Rare Astronomical Sights and Sounds Jonathan Powell Jonathan Powell Ebbw Vale, United Kingdom ISSN 1431-9756 ISSN 2197-6562 (electronic) The Patrick Moore Practical Astronomy Series ISBN 978-3-319-97700-3 ISBN 978-3-319-97701-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97701-0 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018953700 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made.
[Show full text]
Traverse Planning for Human and Robotic Missions to Hadley Rille
NASA/TM-2008-215367 Traverse Planning for Human and Robotic Missions to Hadley Rille Michael Broxton, Matthew C. Deans, Terrence Fong, Trey Smith, NASA Ames Research Center Mark Helper, University of Texas / Austin Kip V. Hodges, Arizona State University, Gerald G. Schaber, USGS (retired) Harrison H. Schmitt IHMC National Aeronautics and Space Administration Ames Research Center Moffett Field, California, 94035-1000 January 2009 NASA/TM-2008-215367 Traverse Planning for Human and Robotic Missions to Hadley Rille Michael Broxton, Matthew C. Deans, Terrence Fong, Trey Smith, NASA Ames Research Center Mark Helper, University of Texas / Austin Kip V. Hodges, Arizona State University, Gerald G. Schaber, USGS (retired) Harrison H. Schmitt IHMC National Aeronautics and Space Administration Ames Research Center Moffett Field, California, 94035-1000 January 2009 Traverse Planning for Human and Robotic Missions to Hadley Rille (report) Michael Broxton1, Matthew C. Deans1, Terrence Fong1, Mark Helper2, Kip V. Hodges3, Gerald G. Schaber4, Harrison H. Schmitt5, and Trey Smith1 1NASA Ames Research Center, 2University of Texas / Austin, 3Arizona State University, 4USGS (retired), 5IHMC Summary On November 6, 2008, we conducted a short lunar traverse planning exercise at the NASA Ames Research Center. The objective was to establish an initial EVA traverse plan for a hypothetical, manned mission to the Apollo 15 region and then to identify where ground-level data (e.g., collected by robotic recon) would help refine the plan. The planning for this mission, which we named “Apollo 15B”, focused on Hadley Rille near Hadley C, and the ejecta blanket from Hadley C that is deposited on to Hadley Rille.
[Show full text]
Volume 3, Number 3, November 2014
THE STAR THE NEWSLETTER OF THE MOUNT CUBA ASTRONOMICAL GROUP VOL. 3 NUM. 3 CONTACT US AT DAVE GROSKI [email protected] OR HANK BOUCHELLE [email protected] 302-983-7830 OUR PROGRAMS ARE HELD THE SECOND TUESDAY OF EACH MONTH AT 7:30 P.M. UNLESS INDICATED OTHERWISE MOUNT CUBA ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY 1610 HILLSIDE MILL ROAD GREENVILLE DE. FOR DIRECTIONS PLEASE VISIT www.mountcuba.org PLEASE SEND ALL PHOTOS AND ARTICLES TO [email protected] 1 NOVEMBER MEETING TUESDAY THE 11TH 7:30 p.m. OCTOBER MEETING REVIEW: Dave Groski gave a presentation on the Spilhaus Space Clock. This is such an interesting devise that I shall cover it in more detail under the Points of Interest section of the STAR. Dr. Hank Bouchelle once again gave a truly informative talk on not one but several topics related to Astronomy and Physics in general. Since he covered such a varied group of topics, I shall also cover them in the Points of Interest section. Phenomena: Knock! Knock! Is Anyone home? Hank Bouchelle Cinematic depictions of the events accompanying an alien visit are almost uniformly dire. Alien intentions are almost always destructive, deadly, or intended to enslave. They destroy entire populations, and unleash weapons that easily turn Earth to dust. Reports of personal interactions with aliens frequently relate queasy adventures in proctology. It is a bit strange, then, that many people, especially among the scientific community, spare no effort or cost to detect alien messages or the electronic fingerprint of signals that are not produced by the nature.
[Show full text]
Entrance Pupil Irradiance Estimating Model for a Moon-Based Earth Radiation Observatory Instrument
remote sensing Article Entrance Pupil Irradiance Estimating Model for a Moon-Based Earth Radiation Observatory Instrument Wentao Duan 1, Shaopeng Huang 2,3,* and Chenwei Nie 4 1 School of Human Settlements and Civil Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710054, China; [email protected] 2 Institute of Deep Earth Science and Green Energy, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China 3 Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA 4 Key Laboratory of Digital Earth Science, Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100094, China; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Received: 26 January 2019; Accepted: 6 March 2019; Published: 10 March 2019 Abstract: A Moon-based Earth radiation observatory (MERO) could provide a longer-term continuous measurement of radiation exiting the Earth system compared to current satellite-based observatories. In order to parameterize the detector for such a newly-proposed MERO, the evaluation of the instrument’s entrance pupil irradiance (EPI) is of great importance. The motivation of this work is to build an EPI estimating model for a simplified single-pixel MERO instrument. The rationale of this model is to sum the contributions of every location in the MERO-viewed region on the Earth’s top of atmosphere (TOA) to the MERO sensor’s EPI, taking into account the anisotropy in the longwave radiance at the Earth TOA. Such anisotropy could be characterized by the TOA anisotropic factors, which can be derived from the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) angular distribution models (ADMs).
[Show full text]
Integrated Lunar Transportation System
Integrated Lunar Transportation System Jerome Pearson1, John C. Oldson2, Eugene M. Levin3, and Harry Wykes4 Star Technology and Research, Inc., Mount Pleasant, SC, 29466 An integrated transportation system is proposed from the lunar poles to Earth orbit, using solar-powered electric vehicles on lunar tramways, highways, and a lunar space elevator. The system could transport large amounts of lunar resources to Earth orbit for construction, radiation shielding, and propellant depots, and could supply lunar equatorial, polar, and mining bases with manufactured items. We present a system for lunar surface transport using “cars, trucks, and trains,” and the infrastructure of “roads, highways, and tramways,” connecting with the lunar space elevator for transport to Earth orbit. The Apollo Lunar Rovers demonstrated a battery- powered range of nearly 50 kilometers, but they also uncovered the problems of lunar dust. For building dustless highways, it appears particularly attractive to create paved roads by using microwaves to sinter lunar dust into a hard surface. For tramways, tall towers can support high- strength ribbons that carry cable cars over the lunar craters; the ribbon might even be fabricated from lunar materials. We address the power and energy storage requirements for lunar transportation vehicles, the design and effectiveness of lunar tramways, and the materials requirements for the support ribbons of lunar tramways and lunar space elevators. 1. Introduction NASA is implementing a plan for a return to the Moon, which will build on and expand the capabilities demonstrated during the Apollo landings. The plan includes long-duration lunar stays, lunar outposts and bases, and exploitation of lunar resources on the Moon and in Earth orbit1.
[Show full text]