Contains:  Solar system body or event
Rupes Kelvin, Bruce Rohrlach

Rupes Kelvin

Rupes Kelvin, Bruce Rohrlach

Rupes Kelvin

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

Cropped view centred on the linear Rupes Kelvin, a 150-km-long NW-SE-oriented lunar fault scarp named after William Thomson - 1st Baron Kelvin (inventor of the Kelvin scale of absolute temperature measurement). Rupes is the Latin word for cliff.

The 45-km-long Promontorium Kelvin juts NNW-ward from Rupes Kelvin into the Sea of Humorum (Sea of Moisture). The reverse C shaped crater in the upper right is Hippalus, on the eastern margin of Mare Humorum. The southwest rim of Hippalus has been flooded and buried by mare basalts while the surviving rim is eroded. The flooded floor of Hippalus crater is bisected by a member of the Rimae Hippalus.

The 42-km-wide Vitello crater was named after 13th century Polish theologian, mathematician and physicist Vitello. It lies just to the east of the lava-flooded crater Lee. Vitello is 1,700 metres deep, its most eye-catching feature is a bright near circular rille that wraps around the central peaks on the crater floor. Vitello was mistakenly interpreted as a lunar caldera, subsequently disproved by latter high resolution imaging.

The large crater at bottom right is Campanus, a 2km deep crater that forms a pair with the Mercater crater.

Comments

Histogram

Rupes Kelvin, Bruce Rohrlach