LUNAR TOPOGRAPHY
Moon's surface as imagined by famous space artist Chesley Bonestell, early 1950's.
Same spaceship design was used in movie "Destination Moon," for which
Bonestell was a technical advisor.
This is an image taken by Apollo 17 (December 1972). The view is
looking south from orbit over the southern edge of Mare Imbrium. The
large crater at left center is Erathosthenes. Terrain around the
crater is older and more rugged than the mare plains at the bottom of
the picture. Note the mountain-like formations in the center of the
crater, produced by impact "bounceback". The crater just visible
edge-on on the lunar horizon at the lower right is Copernicus.
The hills at the left of Eratosthenes are the eastern end of the Apennine
Mountain range, which line the southeastern quadrant of Mare Imbrium. Lunar
mountains are produced by impact events, not by plate tectonics. Note the
steep rise of the hills out of the mare plain.
A small rille, or canyon, caused presumably by lava flow, is visible extending
toward the camera from the slopes of Eratosthenes.
A view looking down on the
landing site of Apollo 15 near the mile-wide Hadley Rille, also adjacent to Mare
Imbrium and one of the largest rilles on the Moon. Note
the flat mare terrain, apart from the Rille itself.
Southward looking oblique view of Mare Imbrium and Copernicus crater.
Copernicus crater is seen almost edge-on near the horizon at the
center. The crater is 107 km in diameter and is centered at 9.7 N,
20.1 W. In the foreground is Mare Imbrium, peppered with secondary
crater chains and elongated craters due to the Copernicus impact. The
smoother mare surface is in contrast to the rough highland area at the
top of the frame. The large crater near the center of the image is
the 20 km diameter Pytheas, at 20.5 N, 20.6 W. At the upper edge of
the Mare Imbrium are the Montes Carpatus. The distance from the lower
edge of the frame to the center of Copernicus is about 400 km. This
picture was taken by the metric camera on Apollo 17. Click on the
image for a larger version.
Apollo 15 metric camera image of Southeastern Mare Imbrium. The 33 km
diameter Timocharis crater, centered at 26.7 N, 13.1 W, is partly
visible at upper left. Note the old fractured terrain at the right
and smoother textured and ridged mare terrain at center. The craters
Feuillee and Beer(!) are at the top of the image, and just below at
right of Beer a small crater chain can be seen. A sinuous rille is
also marginally visible at bottom center of the image, running up to
middle of the frame. The image is about 115 km across and north is
up. Note the strong shadows cast by the low sun angle. Altitudes of
peaks like those seen to the right in the image can be determined by
measuring these shadows from Earth-based telescopes. Click on the
image for a larger version.
Oblique view of the highland area surrounding the ancient 138 km
diameter crater Hipparchus. The crater is centered near the middle of
the image and stretches over half the width of the frame but is barely
visible due to modification over its great age. Much of the
modification is due to later impacts and also to radial grooves and
ridges from the Imbrium impact known as "Imbrium sculpture." Near the
horizon at left is Sinus Medii and the crater within Hipparchus above
and right of center is Horrocks, 30 km in diameter. North is up.
Back to the ASTR 130 Notes on the Moon
Last modified
24 Septemer 2000 by rwo
