Gray spots on the moon. Lunar seas and craters. Geological history of the moon

The dimensions of the seas are from 200 to 1100 km across. The seas are lowlands (for example, the Sea of \u200b\u200bRains is located 3 km below the surrounding area) with a flat bottom, with the presence of folds and peaks of small mountain peaks, filled with hardened lava. The surface of the seas is covered with dark matter - lava of the basaltic type, once erupted from the bowels of the moon. At the bottom of the Grimaldi Crater at the edge of the Ocean of Storms, ground-based research methods have discovered ilmenites - rocks containing oxygen. There are few craters in the seas. The largest lowland is called the Ocean of Storms. Its length is 2000 km. The marginal zones of the seas, which resemble bays, as well as dark depressions in the form of lakes, have been given names corresponding to their type. Ring-shaped mountain ranges are located around the seas. The Sea of \u200b\u200bRains is surrounded by the Alps, Caucasus, Apennines, Carpathians, Jura. The Sea of \u200b\u200bNectar - the Altai and Pyrenees mountains. The East Sea is surrounded by the Cordilleras and the Roca Mountains. In the seas, sometimes there are ledges - faults; the most famous ledge, the Straight Wall, is located in the Sea of \u200b\u200bClouds.

On the back side There are few seas of the moon and they are small in size. There is speculation that the marine formations on the Moon were formed as a result of only a few collisions. The craters formed as a result of the impacts filled with lava and gave rise to mascons. Lava rocks are heavier than continental rocks, which could cause asymmetry in the distribution of the lunar mass, as a result of which the Earth's gravitation permanently fixed the "sea" hemisphere of the Moon in the direction of our planet. The reverse side of the Moon is characterized by "pools" - very large ring structures, more than 300 km in diameter. The East Sea, the Moscow Sea and others have two annular shafts - an external and an internal one, with a diameter ratio of 2/1. Sometimes the inner rings are badly damaged.

Some facts about the lunar seas

Names of seas, bays, lakes and swamps on the visible side of the moon

russian name - latin name

Names of the seas on the far side of the moon

russian name - latin name

Moon
Physical features	Internal structure Gravity Topography Magnetic field Atmosphere
Orbit	Orbit Phases New Moon Full Moon Solar Eclipse Lunar Eclipse Tide
Lunar surface	Selenography Visible side Reverse side Seas Impact Crater Basin South Pole - Aitken Shackleton Ice Peak of Eternal Light Space Weather Short Lunar Events
Selenology	Geology (chronology) Mineralogy Giant collision theory KREEP ALSEP Laser location of the Moon Late heavy bombardment Lunar rocks Regolith Meteorites
Study	Exploration Project Apollo Colonization Lunar Conspiracy
Other	Calendar Month Crescent Mythology Art Illusion Moon Origins
See also: Solar system Satellites of planets ((Moon Exploration AMC))

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

See what "Lunar seas" are in other dictionaries:

The name for large, dark, nearly flat areas of the Moon's surface below its average. Lunar seas occupy 17% of the Moon's surface; they are covered with rocks similar to terrestrial basalts, the age of which is 3 4.5 billion years ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

The name of large, dark, nearly flat areas of the Moon's surface below its mean. Lunar seas occupy 17% of the Moon's surface; they are covered with rocks similar to terrestrial basalts, the age of which is 3 4.5 billion years. * * * LUNAR ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

Plain spaces on the surface of the Moon (See the Moon), which look like extended dark spots ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Name large dark, almost flat areas of the lunar surface located below its cf. level. L. m. Occupy 17% of the surface of the moon; they are covered with rocks similar to terrestrial basalts, up to 3 4.5 billion years old ... Natural science. encyclopedic Dictionary

Black Sea The sea is a part of the World Ocean, separated by land or elevations of the underwater relief. Some seas are part of another sea (for example, the Aegean Sea is part of the Mediterranean). The term is also used to refer to very large ... ... Wikipedia

View of the Moon in a Lunar Eclipse Schematic of a Lunar Eclipse Lunar Eclipse is an eclipse that occurs when the Moon enters the cone of the shadow cast by the Earth. The diameter of the Earth's shadow spot at a distance of 363,000 km (the minimum distance of the Moon from the Earth) ... ... Wikipedia

moon obelisks - 8 objects of regular conical shape, reminiscent of the famous Cleopatra's Needle in g. New york (USA), located on a flat section of the lunar Sea of \u200b\u200bTranquility on an area of \u200b\u200b165 x 225 meters. E. Moon obeliskes D. Mondobelisken ... Explanatory ufological dictionary with equivalents in English and German

Once upon a time there was a woman named Viovio, and she had a son named Ganumi. When he was still a baby, his mother became pregnant again. This spoiled her milk, and Ganumi stopped sucking. He lay hungry and dirty, his mother did not wash him and only sometimes gave him a little sago.

Shortly before giving birth, a corner was drawn for her in the house, and there she gave birth. She did not throw away the mat with blood stains, and one day, when everyone went to work in the gardens, she put Ganumi on it and also left. Ganumi immediately jumped to his feet and shouted:

Oh, what's that red here?

And then Ganumi became a parrot from a boy. His body was covered with feathers, a beak appeared, and he turned red all over - like blood stains on a mat. The parrot flew up to the roof of the hut, and then flew to where Viovio was making sago, and sat on a nearby sago palm tree. The woman thought: "I have never seen such a bird, how beautiful it is!" And the bird cried out in the language of red parrots:

Viovio, do you recognize me?

The woman threw some sago to the bird and said:

Why is this bird calling my name? The parrot flew to another tree, threw off its feathers, became a boy again and said:

Don't you recognize me? But you gave birth to me - you, not another woman. Now I'll leave you. Trees will become my home, I will eat coconuts, and now my name will be red cockatoo - pyro.

Don't say that, said the mother, go downstairs, come home. ...

It's late now, I cannot go down, my house will be in the trees. When I was with you, you didn’t care about me, but now I’ll eat bananas and coconuts and laugh at people.

The red parrot flew away and sat on a sago palm tree that grew above the stream. Soon the girls came for water, and one of them, whose name was Gebaye, saw the reflection of a parrot and thought that the bird was there in the water. She jumped into the stream to catch her, but the bird was not there. :

Why did you get into the water? - said another girl. - There is a bird, upstairs, on a tree.

The parrot flew to the girls, fluttered over them, and they caught him. Gebaye joked:

I'll take him home and hide him there, it will be our husband. She put the parrot in the basket, and when she returned home, she hung the basket near the place where she slept. The girls lay down and fell asleep. In the middle of the night, Ganumi became human and woke Gebaye.

Who is it? - she exclaimed.

It's me, pyro. You caught me and put me in a basket.

Gebaye said to herself: "I thought it was a parrot, but this, it turns out, is a man!" The young man went to bed with her, and in the morning he returned back to the basket. The next night, he again came to sleep with her, and Gebaye became pregnant. Soon other girls began to say: "Look at Gebaya, her nipples darkened - she's probably pregnant." Everyone found out about this, and some women began to scold her, and the rest were silent. Her father and mother also learned that Gebae would have a child. They got very angry, gathered their fellow villagers and went with them to kill Ganumi.

The red cockatoo flew to the sago palm, threw off its feathers and laid them in the hollow of a palm leaf. People cut down the palm tree on which he was hiding with axes, but Ganumi managed to jump to another, and when they began to chop it down, then to the third, and from it to the fourth. He saw his mother from above in the crowd and shouted:

Viovio, where can I hide? They are about to kill me. Where is my staircase, mother?

The mother untied the rope that held her skirt and threw the end to Ganumi, but the rope was too short and then she took out Ganumi's umbilical cord, which she had saved. Ganumi shouted:

They called me pyro, mother, and now they will call me differently! Ganumi will always call me when I shine brightly. Throw me the end of the umbilical cord, mother!

The mother firmly grasped the end of the rope with the umbilical cord tied in her hand and threw another one to him - she wanted to pull her son from the tree and hide in her basket. Ganumi grabbed the end of the umbilical cord, and Viovio pulled it with all her might. But Ganumi held on tightly to the tree, and from Viovio's jerk it first bent towards her, and then straightened up again - with such force that it threw Ganumi's mother into the sky, and after her, Ganumi himself, holding on to the end of the umbilical cord. There Viovio caught him and put him in her basket, and in it she carries him in heaven to this day.

On the leaves and trunks of sago palms, there is a white coating that looks like flour. Ganumi, when he jumped from palm to palm, smeared his face in it, and since then it is white. When Ganumi looks a little out of his mother's basket, people see a young moon; then he pokes his face out more and more. Sometimes the mother hides the basket behind her back, and then the moon is not visible at all. You cannot see the mother, only her fingers are sometimes visible in front of Ganumi's face - these are the spots that we see on the moon.

There is another story about why Ganumi's face is white. They say that once, when he was still small, his mother fried sago, and he cried and asked to be given him. Angry, she threw a handful at him, the sago covered Ganumi's face, and where the burnt was hit, there are now dark spots.

Ganumi threw off a part of the sago that had stuck to his face, and it fell on the palm trees and even on the ground - crumbs of this sago are still found, and if the young man eats such a crumb, all girls will love him. For this, the crumb is sometimes put under the boy's arm, or rubbed with the shell that the young man wears around his neck, or smeared with it a long feather that adorns his head - it sways back and forth and lures the girls. The "crumble moon" is also sometimes smeared if they want to kill the fat dugong, the rope to which the harpoon is tied, and they also give one of the dogs if the hunter wants to drive the fat wild pig.

Everyone knows how Ganumi appeared, and sometimes lovers, having met, repeat his conversation with Gebaye. “Who are you?” The girl asks. "I am pyro," the young man answers, "I am Ganumi."

For many millennia, people have been watching the amazing celestial body called the Earth's satellite - the Moon. The first astronomers noticed dark patches of various sizes on its surface, counting them as seas and oceans. What are these spots really?

Characteristics of the Moon as a satellite of the Earth

The Moon is the closest to the Sun and the only satellite of our planet, as well as the second well-visible celestial body in the sky. This is the only astronomical object visited by humans.

There are several hypotheses for the appearance of the moon:

The destruction of the planet Phaethon, which collided with a comet in the orbit of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Part of its fragments rushed to the Sun, and one to the Earth, forming a system with a satellite.
During the destruction of Phaeton, the remaining core changed its orbit, "turning" into Venus, and the Moon is the former satellite of Phaeton, which the Earth captured into its orbit.
The moon is the surviving core of Phaethon after its destruction.

With the first telescopic observations, scientists were able to see the moon much closer. At first, they perceived the spots on its surface as water spaces similar to those on Earth. Also, through a telescope on the surface of the Earth satellite, you can see mountain ranges and bowl-shaped depressions.

But over time, when they learned about the temperature on the moon reaching + 120 ° C during the day and -160 ° C at night, and about the absence of the atmosphere, they realized that there could be no talk of water on the moon. By tradition, the name "Lunar seas and oceans" has remained.

A more detailed study of the Moon began with the first landing of the Soviet Luna-2 spacecraft on its surface in 1959. The subsequent Luna-3 spacecraft made it possible for the first time to capture its reverse side, which remains invisible from Earth, for the first time. In 1966, the structure of the soil was established with the help of the Lunokhod.

On July 21, 1969, a significant event took place in the world of astronautics - the landing of a man on the moon. These heroes were Americans Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin. Although in recent years, many skeptics have been talking about the falsification of this event.

The moon is located from the Earth at a huge distance by human standards - 384 467 km, which is approximately 30 times the diameter of the globe. In relation to our planet, the Moon has a diameter slightly more than a quarter of the Earth, makes a complete revolution around it in an elliptical orbit in 27.32166 days.

The Moon consists of crust, mantle and core. Its surface is covered in a mixture of dust and rocky debris from constant impacts with meteorites. The Moon's atmosphere is very rarefied, which leads to a sharp fluctuation in temperatures on its surface - from -160 ° C to + 120 ° C At the same time, at a depth of 1 meter, the temperature of the rock is constant at -35 ° C. Due to the thin atmosphere, the sky on the moon is permanently black, and not blue, as on Earth in clear weather.

Moon surface map

Observing the Moon from the Earth, even with the naked eye one can see on it light and dark spots of various shapes and sizes. The surface is literally dotted with craters of various diameters, from a meter to hundreds of kilometers.

In the 17th century, scientists decided that the dark spots were lunar seas and oceans, believing that there is water on the moon, just like on Earth. Light areas were considered dry land. The map of the seas of the moon and craters was first drawn by the Italian scientist Giovanni Riccioli in 1651. The astronomer even gave them his own names, which are still used today. We will learn about them a little later. After Galileo discovered the mountains on the Moon, they began to give names in the likeness of the Earth.

Craters are special ring mountains called circuses, also named after the great scientists of antiquity. After the discovery and photographing by Soviet astronomers using spacecraft of the far side of the Moon, craters with the names of Russian scientists and researchers appeared on the map.

All this is detailed on the lunar map of both hemispheres used in astronomy, because a person does not lose hope not only to land on the moon again, but also to build bases, establish a search for minerals and create a colony for a full-fledged living.

Mountain systems and craters on the Moon

Craters on the Moon are the most common landform. These multiple traces of meteorites and asteroids working over millions of years can be seen on a clear full moon night without the aid of optical instruments. Upon closer examination, these works of space art are striking in their originality and grandeur.

The history and origin of "moon scars"

Back in 1609, the great scientist Galileo Galilei constructed the world's first telescope and was able to observe the Moon at multiple magnifications. It was he who noticed on its surface all kinds of craters surrounded by "ring" mountains. He called them craters. Now let's find out why there are craters on the moon and how they formed.

All of them were mainly formed after the emergence of the solar system, when it was subjected to bombardment of celestial bodies left after the destruction of the planets, which rushed around it in huge numbers at an insane speed. Almost 4 billion years ago, this era ended. The Earth got rid of these consequences due to atmospheric influences, but the Moon, devoid of an atmosphere, did not.

Astronomers' opinions about the origins of craters have constantly changed over the centuries. Considered such theories as volcanic origin and the hypothesis about the formation of craters on the Moon using “ space ice". A more detailed study of the lunar surface, which became available in the 20th century, nevertheless proves, in its overwhelming majority, the shock theory from the impact of a collision with meteorites.

Description of lunar craters

Galileo, in his reports and works, compared lunar craters with the eyes on the tails of peacocks.

The ring-shaped appearance is the most important feature of the lunar mountains. You can't find such people on Earth. Outwardly, the lunar crater is a depression around which high round shafts rise, which dot the entire surface of the Moon.

Lunar craters bear some resemblance to terrestrial volcanic craters. Unlike the terrestrial ones, the tops of the lunar mountains are not as sharp, they are more round in shape with an oblong shape. If you look at the crater from the sunny side, you can see that the shadow of the mountains inside the crater is larger than the shadow outside. From this we can conclude that the bottom of the crater is below the very surface of the satellite.

The sizes of craters on the Moon can vary in diameter and depth. The diameter can be either scanty, up to several meters, or huge, reaching more than one hundred kilometers.

The larger the crater, the deeper, respectively. The depth can reach 100 m. The outer wall of large "lunar bowls" over 100 km rises above the surface up to 5 km.

Of the relief features that distinguish lunar craters, the following can be distinguished:

Inner slope;
Outer slope;
The depth of the crater bowl itself;
System and length of rays radiating from the outer shaft;
The central peak at the bottom of the crater, which is found in large, more than 25 km in diameter.

In 1978, Charles Wood developed a kind of classification of craters on the visible side of the Moon, differing from each other in size and appearance:

Al-Battani C - a spherical crater with a sharp wall, up to 10 km in diameter;
Bio - the same Al-Battani C, but with a flat bottom, from 10 to 15 km;
Sozigen - impact crater 15 to 25 km in size;
Trisnecker - a lunar crater up to 50 km in diameter, with a sharp peak in the center;
Tycho - craters with a terrace-like slope and a flat bottom, over 50 km.

The largest craters of the moon

The history of the exploration of lunar craters can be read by the names given by their researchers. As soon as Galileo discovered them with a telescope, many scientists who tried to create a map gave them their names. The lunar mountains Caucasus, Vesuvius, the Apennines appeared ...

The names of the craters were given in honor of the scientists Plato, Ptolemy, Galileo, in honor of St. Catherine. After the publication of the map of the reverse side by Soviet scientists, a crater appeared. Tsiolkovsky, Gagarin, Koroleva and others.

The largest crater officially listed is Hertzsprung. Its diameter is 591 km. It is invisible to us, as it is located on the invisible side of the moon. It is a huge crater in which smaller ones are located. This structure is called multi-ring.

The second largest crater bears the name Grimaldi, named after the Italian physicist. Its diameter is 237 km. Crimea can be freely located inside it.

The third huge lunar crater is Ptolemy. Its width is about 180 km across.

Oceans and seas on the moon

Lunar seas - it is also a bizarre form of relief of the satellite's surface in the form of huge dark spots, attracting the eyes of more than one generation of astronomers.

Concept of sea and ocean on the moon

For the first time the seas appeared on the maps of the moon after the invention of the telescope. Galileo Galilei, who first examined these dark spots, suggested that they were bodies of water.

Since then, they began to be called seas and appeared on maps after a detailed study of the surface of the visible part of the moon. Even after it became clear that there is no atmosphere on the Earth's satellite and there is no possibility of the presence of moisture, they did not fundamentally change.

Seas on the Moon - strange dark valleys on the visible part of it from Earth, are huge low-lying areas with a flat bottom, filled with magma. Billions of years ago, volcanic processes left an indelible mark on the relief of the lunar surface. Huge areas stretch from 200 to 1000 km across.

The seas seem dark to us because they reflect sunlight poorly. The depth from the surface of the satellite can reach 3 km, which can boast the size of the Sea of \u200b\u200bRains on the Moon.

The largest sea is called the Ocean of Storms. This lowland stretches for 2000 km.

The visible seas on the Moon are located within the ring-shaped mountain ranges, which also have their own names. The Sea of \u200b\u200bClarity is located near the Serpentine Ridge. Its diameter is 700 km, but it is not remarkable for that. Of interest are the various colors of lava that stretch along its bottom. A large positive gravity anomaly is found in the Sea of \u200b\u200bClarity.

The most famous seas, bays and lakes

From the seas can be distinguished such as the sea of \u200b\u200bHumidity, Abundance, Rains, Waves, Clouds, Islands, Crisis, Foam, Poznennoe. On the far side of the moon there is the Sea of \u200b\u200bMoscow.

In addition to the only Ocean of Storms and Seas, the Moon has bays, lakes and even swamps that have their own official names. Let's consider the most interesting ones.

The lakes received such names as the lake of Awe, Spring, Oblivion, Tenderness, Perseverance, Hatred. The bays include Loyalty, Love, Tenderness and Good Luck. The swamps have corresponding names - Rot, Sleep and Epidemic.

There are some facts related to the seas on the surface of the Earth's satellite:

The Sea of \u200b\u200bTranquility on the Moon is known for the fact that it was on it that a human foot first set foot. In 1969, American astronauts carried out the first landing on the moon in human history.
The Rainbow Bay is famous for the exploration of the Lunokhod-1 rover nearby in 1970.
At the Sea of \u200b\u200bClarity, the Soviet Lunokhod-2 conducted its surface studies.
In the Sea of \u200b\u200bPlenty, the Luna-16 probe in 1970 took lunar soil for a sample and delivered it to Earth.
The Poznannoe Sea became famous for the fact that in 1964 the American probe "Ranger-7" landed here, which for the first time in history received a photo of the lunar surface at close range.

What is the lunar sea - look at the video:

The seas and craters of the Moon, thanks to modern research and images, are mapped in great detail on the lunar surface. Despite this, the satellite of the Earth keeps in itself a lot of secrets and mysteries that still have to be solved by man. The whole world is eagerly awaiting the dispatch of the first colony, which will slightly lift the curtain of this amazing place in our solar system.

If a person has the ability to reason, he can contemplate the Sun, Moon and stars and enjoy the gifts of the earth and the sea - he is not alone and helpless.

/ Epictetus /

Since the beginning of their history, people have closely watched the moon. This only satellite of our planet, to this day, attracts curious glances, becoming an important element of belief different nations, their rituals, customs, will take. What the dark spots on the moon and where did they come from?

In ancient times, people believed that the landscape on the Moon is the same as on Earth, dark spots are seas, and light spots are land. However, with the development of science, it was proved that there is no atmosphere on our satellite, which means there is no liquid water on its surface. After a series of numerous studies and observations, scientists managed to compile detailed maps unique lunar landscape. Dark spots turned out to be huge craters that were formed as a result of collisions with celestial bodies and were flooded with liquid lava. They continue to be called the seas, as in ancient times.

Photographed by the Apollo 11 crew, a large lunar crater about 80 km in diameter is located on the far side of the Moon and is not visible from Earth. Astronauts collected and delivered to Earth about 20 kg of lunar rock

Craters occupy up to 40% of the entire visible lunar surface. Our satellite is always turned to the Earth by the same side, on which most of the craters are located. Only very recently, with the development of technology, has man managed to look at the far side of the moon. There, in addition to the usual topography, there is a huge depression 12 km deep and 2250 km wide, the largest in the entire solar system.

The closest celestial body to the Earth

The moon is the closest large celestial body to us. The distance to it is approximately 384 467 km. Appearance The moon changes in accordance with phases that repeat at strictly defined intervals. People in ancient times drew attention to this, therefore, one of the first calendars that they began to use in everyday life was the lunar one.

Particles of light from the Moon reach the Earth in 1.25 seconds. But it is the light that moves the fastest in the universe. And people, even on a space rocket, need to get to the moon for a whole week. So our eternal companion is not so close. Suffice it to say that the length of the earth's equator is 10 times less than this distance.

The lunar radius is 1737 km. This is only 1.5 times less than that of Mercury, and 4 times less than that of the Earth. The mass of the only satellite of the Earth is 80 times less than the mass of our planet, so all bodies on its surface are attracted 6 times weaker. If the astronaut who was there, even in a spacesuit, jumped, he would fly several tens of meters. Its weight with all the equipment would have been no more than 20 kg.

During the day, the surface of the Moon illuminated by the Sun heats up to 130 ºС, and the "lunar day" lasts almost half a month. At night, the surface temperature on our satellite decreases to minus 160-170 ºС. Thus, there is no need to talk about any life on the moon.

Analysis of lunar soil samples showed that the surface of the Moon, like the surface of the Earth, was formed as a result of solidification of basalt melt. Therefore, the lunar seas are most likely frozen lakes of volcanic lava, and there has never been water in them.

The lunar seas are the largest features of the Earth's satellite surface. Solidified lava is characterized by a darker color than the rest of its surface. The seas are lowlands, the largest of which is called the Ocean of Storms. There are also bays, lakes and swamps. There are also seas and lakes on the far side of the moon, but they are much smaller and they are small in size.

As mentioned above, the surface of the lunar seas and oceans is covered with dark matter. This is mainly dust that has settled over millions of years, but there are also outcrops of dense volcanic lava. It once erupted in large numbers from lunar volcanoes. Therefore, on the surface of the seas there are numerous hills and even low mountains.

Dark spots, that is, craters, are the most characteristic feature lunar surface. There are also enough of them on Earth, only they are all "disguised" either by the waters of the ocean or by vegetation. And the Moon carefully keeps these celestial "autographs" - both ancient and relatively recent.

For many millennia, the Moon has amazed earthlings with its beauty and mystery. The greatest contribution to solving its mysteries was made by such great scientists as Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Euler and many others.

It might be helpful to read: