July 9, 2009

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Pictet Puzzle

LPOD-July9-09.jpg
Lunar Orbiter V-125M image from LPI Lunar Orbiter Photo Gallery
(illumination from the bottom)

This is a great image of impact melt ponds on the outer rim of Tycho. But that is not the focus of interest right now. Since the July 7 LPOD a peculiar cylindrical mass on the western wall of Pictet has been an object of intrigue. The slight curved bright wall of Pictet is almost saturated in this medium resolution Lunar Orbiter V image so I enhanced and stretched and ruined the tonal balance to try to better reveal the unusual feature. Its surface is rough-textured (no, it is not a metal cylinder!), and is raised so that it catches the Sun. I still don't know exactly what geologic forces produced it. I guess that it is a block of Pictet's rim that was dislodged and shifted downslope by Tycho's impact. The amazing thing is that there wasn't far more structural disruption and destruction when Tycho formed about 100 million years ago - did the dinosaurs notice?

Chuck Wood

Technical Details

Related Links
Rükl plate 64

BTW - did you note yesterday when the time was 12:34:56 on 7/8/9 - this sequential alignment occurs only once a century (actually twice - AM and PM).

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