September 29, 2010
King for a Day
[[King_M119062083MC_pyr_Octave_photometric_MCollins.jpg|
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assembled from images by LRO/WAC/GSFC/ASU
The crowning crater on the farside must go to King. It is a great 77km diameter crater hidden from our view on Earth at 5N, 120.5E, and is a Copernican aged complex crater with an unusual claw shaped central peak, melt ponds and landslides in the walls. The peak is possibly caused by the rebound material going up and collapsing to the North. There are also impact melt ponds on the floor with some volcano like domes with vent-like craters in their tops which can be seen running in a line along the north-eastern floor in the closeup color WAC image below that I processed this afternoon. Are they of volcanic or impact origin? My guess is impact melt, but hard to tell. Also in King Y, to the north, the floor is covered with smooth mare-like material. The south wall of King has collapsed inward onto the floor and external to the rim on the ejecta blanket to the east (right) it has a flow like appearance. Perhaps King was caused by an [/January+19%2C+2009 oblique impact]. There is just so much to see and describe in this King of craters that I will let you go exploring!
[[King_color_mosaic_MCollins_M115529715CE.jpg|
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Above: King's central peak and floor from WAC color image. The peaks have names, the west fork is called Mons Dieter, the east fork Mons André and the base that runs from the south wall is Mons Ganau.
" rel="nofollow Maurice Collins
Technical Details
Processed by Maurice Collins with Octave using [/September+1%2C+2010 Rick Evans' method] from " rel="nofollow M119055289MC_pyr + " rel="nofollow M119062083MC_pyr + " rel="nofollow M119068853MC_pyr + " rel="nofollow M119075647MC_pyr --> " rel="nofollow Full Image
Color image processed by Maurice Collins with LROC WAC previewer from " rel="nofollow M115516151CE + " rel="nofollow M115522919CE + " rel="nofollow M115529715CE --> " rel="nofollow Full Image
Images stitched with " rel="nofollow Microsoft ICE
Related Links
" rel="nofollow LAC 65 in IAU/USGS Nomenclature Atlas
" rel="nofollow LRO Featured Image
" rel="nofollow King Crater Flyover
" rel="nofollow Apollo Over the Moon: A view from Orbit
" rel="nofollow Heather, D. and Dunkin, S. (2003) "Geology and stratigraphy of King crater, lunar farside." Icarus 163, pp. 307-329.
" rel="nofollow Apollo 16 Preliminary Science Report 29-62
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