Contains:  Solar system body or event
Archimedes & Apennines, Robert Gillette

Archimedes & Apennines

Acquisition type: Lucky imaging

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Description

This view of the Eastern edge of Mare Imbrium, centered on Archimedes (82 km across) reaches from the southern tip of Montes Caucasus (upper right) along most of the lunar Apennine Mountains to Mons Huygens. At 450 km long, rising to 5,000 meters, the Apennines are the largest range on the near-side of the Moon

Crater Autolycus (39 km) is right and slightly north of Archimedes. Aristillus (55 km) is directly north of these craters. Between Archimedes and the Apennines is the oddly named plain of Palus Putredinus, which, as the name suggests, translates as “Putrid Swamp.”

Crater Timocharis (33 km) is at lower left from Archimedes. Between it and Archimedes is a pair of craters, Beer and Feuillee. A distinct but seemingly unnamed catena (chain of craterlets) extends from Beer.

At upper left from Archimedes is an isolated cluster of mountains, Mons Spitzbergen. They are the most prominent expression of a ghostly arc of mountains mostly drowned in Imbrium lava. They appear to be part of an inner uplift ring, reaching across the northern Imbrium to the Montes Teneriffe near plato and the Montes Recti (the Straight Range) on the western side of Imbrium.

Along with the Caucasus and Apennine ranges on the eastern boundary of Imbrium, Mons Spitzbergen and the rest of this arc appear to be part of a series of concentric uplift rings formed about 3.9 billion years ago by the impacting proto-planet that gouged Imbrium.

In version B, the landing site of Apollo 15, the first Apollo mission to deploy a rover, is marked near the northern end of Hadley Rille, at far right from Archimedes and very close to the Apennine highlands. Just east (right) of Archimedes is the impact site of the Soviet Luna 2, the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the moon, on 13 September 1959, and the first human-made object to touch another celestial body.

Credit to Moon Globe HD 2.3, Alan Chu’s Photographic Moon Book 3.5 (2011), and Wikipedia.

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    Archimedes & Apennines, Robert Gillette
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Description: Apollo 15 & Luna 2 Sites labeled

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Archimedes & Apennines, Robert Gillette