May 18, 2005

A Sharper Image

Image Credit: Carmelo Zannelli

A Sharper Image Does the Moon have corners? It has limbs, but it also seems to have out of the way areas that are infrequently observed. Often these are near very attractive areas that steal attention. Here is an often forgotten corner in the unnamed peninsula of grayness that seperates Imbrium from Frigoris. Sinus Iridum and its bay of ridges and rugged Jura rim is the local attraction, but there are stories in the hinterland too. The area is dominated by low curved ridges, most of which are probably subdued secondary craters from the Imbrium and Iridum impacts. Two rilles also occur in this area. At the upper left is the tail end of the sinuous Sharp Rille - there has never been an image of the entire rille in LPOD (hint). Between Sharp and Sharp A is a more peculiar rille that has very sharp edges and is tightly sinuous. This is similar to the rilles that cut this same ejecta blanket near Plato. I speculate that rilles erupted through impact ejecta have a more sinuous nature because the ejecta is easier to erode meanders into, compared to the solid lava adjacent to normal mare rilles. — Chuck Wood Technical Details: April 21, 2005. 180mm Maksutov-Newtonian @6500 mm focal length + Vesta Pro webcam + IR cutoff filter. 350 of 1800 processed with Iris 4.32 Related Links: Lunar Orbiter 4 image Yesterday's LPOD: Against All Odds Tomorrow's LPOD: Rarely Seen Genius

Author & Editor: Charles A. Wood

 

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