Mare Imbrium
Coordinates 32°48′N 15°36′W / 32.8°N 15.6°W | | |
Diameter | 1,146 km (712 mi)[1] | |
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Eponym | Sea of Showers or Sea of Rains |
Mare Imbrium
Origin
Mare Imbrium formed when a proto-planet from the asteroid belt collided with the Moon during the Late Heavy Bombardment.[3] The impact is dated to approximately 3922 ± 12 million years ago, based on radiometric dating techniques. Ejecta from the impact covers large areas of the near side of the Moon.[4][5]
Characteristics
With a diameter of 1145 km, Mare Imbrium is second only to Oceanus Procellarum in size among the maria, and it is the largest mare associated with an impact basin.
The Imbrium Basin is surrounded by three concentric rings of mountains, uplifted by the colossal impact event that excavated it. The outermost ring of mountains has a diameter of 1300 km and is divided into several different ranges; the Montes Carpatus to the south, the Montes Apenninus to the southeast, and the Montes Caucasus to the east. The ring mountains are not as well developed to the north and west, and it appears they were simply not raised as high in these regions by the Imbrium impact. The middle ring of mountains forms the Montes Alpes and the mountainous regions near the craters Archimedes and Plato. The innermost ring, with a diameter of 600 km, has been largely buried under the mare's basalt leaving only low hills protruding through the mare plains and mare ridges forming a roughly circular pattern.
The outer ring of mountains rise roughly 7 km above the surface of Mare Imbrium. The Mare material is thought to be about 5 km deep, giving the Imbrium Basin a total depth of 12 km; it is thought that the original crater left by the Imbrium impact was as much as 100 km deep, but that the floor of the basin bounced back upwards immediately afterwards.
Surrounding the Imbrium Basin is a region blanketed by ejecta from the impact, extending roughly 800 km outward. Also encircling the basin is a pattern of radial grooves called the "Imbrium Sculpture", which have been interpreted as furrows cut in the Moon's surface by large projectiles blasted out of the basin at low angles, causing them to skim across the lunar surface ploughing out these features. The sculpture pattern was first identified by Grove Karl Gilbert in 1893.[6] Furthermore, a Moon-wide pattern of faults which run both radial to and concentric to the Imbrium basin were thought to have been formed by the Imbrium impact; the event literally shattered the Moon's entire lithosphere. At the region of the Moon's surface exactly opposite Imbrium Basin, there is a region of chaotic terrain (the crater Van de Graaff) which is thought to have been formed when the seismic waves of the impact were focused there after travelling through the Moon's interior. Mare Imbrium is about 750 miles (1,210 km) wide.
A
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Shaded Relief map
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Gravity map based onGRAIL
Names
Like most of the other maria on the Moon, Mare Imbrium was named by Giovanni Riccioli, whose 1651 nomenclature system has become standardized.[8]
The earliest known name for the mare may be "The Shrine of
Around 1600,
Observation and exploration
Mare Imbrium is visible to the naked eye from Earth. In the traditional 'Man in the Moon' image seen on the Moon in Western folklore, Mare Imbrium forms the man's right eye.[11]
Luna 17
On 17 November 1970 at 03:47 Universal Time, the Soviet spacecraft Luna 17 made a soft landing in the mare, at latitude 38.28 N, and longitude 35.00 W. Luna 17 carried Lunokhod 1, the first robotic rover to be deployed on the Moon or any extraterrestrial body. Lunokhod 1, a remote-controlled rover, was successfully deployed and undertook a mission lasting several months.
Apollo 15
In 1971, the crewed
2013 Impact
On 17 March 2013, an object hit the lunar surface in Mare Imbrium and exploded in a flash of apparent magnitude 4.[13] The resulting crater was 18 meters wide.[14] This was the brightest impact recorded since NASA's lunar impact team began monitoring in 2005.
Chinese landing
Chang'e 3 landed on 14 December 2013 on Mare Imbrium, about 40 km south of the 6 km diameter Laplace F crater,[15][16] at 44.1260°N 19.5014°W.[16][17][18] The lander deployed the Yutu rover 7 hours and 24 minutes later.
See also
References
- ^ "Mare Imbrium". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology Research Program.
- ^ P. H. Schultz & D.A. Crawford, Origin and implications of non-radial Imbrium Sculpture on the Moon, Nature 535, 391–394 (2016)
- .
- S2CID 224884243.
- S2CID 210277861.
- ^ Gilbert, Grove Karl. The Moon's face, a study of the origin of its features. Washington, Philosophical Society of Washington, 1893.
- S2CID 40110502.
- ^ Ewen A. Whitaker, Mapping and Naming the Moon (Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 61.
- ^ Ewen A. Whitaker, Mapping and Naming the Moon (Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 7
- ^ Ewen A. Whitaker, Mapping and Naming the Moon (Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 15, 41.
- ^ Ewen A. Whitaker, Mapping and Naming the Moon (Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 3. [ISBN missing]
- ^ Apollo 15 Preliminary Science Report (NASA SP-289), Scientific and Technical Information Office, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, D.C., 1972.
- ^ Dr. Tony Phillips (17 May 2013). "Bright Explosion on the Moon". Science@NASA. Retrieved 19 May 2013.
- ^ NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (17 March 2015). "New Craters on the Moon". Goddard Media Studios. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
- ^ "Chang'e 3 landing coordinates". China News (CN). 14 December 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
- ^ a b Emily Lakdawalla; Phil Stooke (December 2013). "Chang'e 3 has successfully landed on the Moon!". The Planetary Society. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
- ^ "China successfully lands robotic rover on the moon>".
- ^ "Landing map of Chang'e 3".
- ^ O'Neil, Ian (14 December 2013). "China's Rover Rolls! Yutu Begins Moon Mission". Discovery News. CCTV. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
- ^ "欧阳自远:嫦娥三号明年发射将实现着陆器与月球车联合探测". Xinhua. 14 June 2012. Archived from the original on 17 June 2012. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
- ^ Wall, Mike (12 March 2015). "The Moon's History Is Surprisingly Complex, Chinese Rover Finds". Space.com. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
- S2CID 206561783.
External links
- Phillips, Tony (13 June 2006). "A Meteoroid Hits the Moon". Science@NASA. Archived from the original on 16 June 2006. Retrieved 16 June 2006.
- Mare Imbrium at The Moon Wiki
- Nemiroff, R.; Bonnell, J., eds. (28 December 2000). "Moon Mare and Montes". Astronomy Picture of the Day. NASA. – one of the prominent features of the photo includes Mare Imbrium