October 20, 2010
Fake Lava
image by Jean-Luc Dauvergne, Elie Rousset & Philippe Tosi, S2P / IMCCE / Obs. Midi, Pic du Midi, France
To detect the rille on the floor of Moretus you can look at Lunar Orbiter images, but there is better lighting on the telescopic image of JLuc and friends. The short rille cuts the relatively smooth surface that probably isn't a lava flow because no recognized volcanics are anywhere near this area of the Moon. The smooth material is most likely impact melt which does in some places show fractures, but this looks more like a volcanic type rille than a melt fracture. There is no other evidence for volcanism so this implies that impact melts may more closely mimic lavas than I previously thought.
Chuck Wood
Technical Details
2010 september 29, ~4h59TU. 1 m telescope + Skynyx 2-1 + near IR filter
(>680nm); mosaïc of 4 images.
Related Links
Rükl plate 73
JL Dauvergne website
IMCCE website
Obs. Midi Pyrénées website
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