image by ESA/SPACE-X, Space Exploration Institute
ESA has now released a series of 136 SMART-1 images that track along the western edge of the limb from Orientale ejecta to Gioja crater near the north pole. The problem with this sweep of images is that they each have a narrow field of view and mostly do not pass over easily identifiable landscapes. Today’s LPOD is an example - I think this is an area just shoreward of southwest Oceanus Procellarum, but I don’t know where. You are invited to try identifying the area by looking at the movie; this image is frame 53. Even without knowing exactly where this is there are some interesting things to note. The area is full of roughness - geologists call it hummocky, probably debris from Orientale or some local craters. And there are many small, connected, irregularly shaped craters that are probably secondaries. Along the top half are small flat zones of mare lavas. At top center there is even a dark halo crater that appears to be an impact that has excavated underlying material that is darker than the surface rocks. The most interesting feature is the concentric crater along the top edge. The rim of the CC is ragged, as if it has been cut by small subsequent craters. The inner donut-like ring appears rounded and a small rounded hill occurs in the center. Great details that don’t, yet, explain the origin.
Technical Details:
29 December 2004. Advanced Moon micro-Imager Experiment (AMIE) camera on SMART-1 spacecraft.
Related Links:
Rükl plate ?
Yesterday's LPOD: King of the Farside
Tomorrow's LPOD: The Least Studied Area of the Lunar Nearside
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