August 11, 2011
Updating Weirdness
image by Zac Pujic, Brisbane, Australia
The eastern shore of Mare Nectaris is seldom imaged, perhaps because it is so dramatically insignificant compared to the opposite side which is studded with the magnificent Theophilus trio and the towering Altai Scarp. Of course, that lack of familiarity makes the eastern shore that much more interesting! Nectaris perhaps has more flooded craters on its margin than any other mare - nearly a dozen are visible in this image. The rims are commonly missing on the mare side, suggesting that the basin center subsided and mare lavas lapped against the seaward crater walls, sometimes overtopping them. But the focus of this image is the bizarre 33 km wide crater Gaudibert. It is a crater - there is a well-defined rim on the west, but the eastern edge of the crater is bulbously mountainous, and the interior contains two massive mountains. Craters aren’t supposed to look like this. The Lunar Orbiter IV image doesn’t help understand this strange crater, but the high Sun Clementine Chuck Wood
This is a classic LPOD from August 15, 2006. Since then we have acquired LRO WAC mosaics, which show that the leftmost mountain on the floor of Gaudibert is crossed by a short segment of a 2 km wide, parallel-sided linear rille. That seems consistent with the idea of uplift for as the mountain was raised it may have expanded laterally, allowing downdropping of a piece of its summit.
Technical Details
August 12, 2006. 31 cm Newtonian f/28. SkyNyx 2.1M and Wratten 25A filter. Frames stacked using Registax 4 beta.
Related Links
Rükl plate 47
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