Contains:  Solar system body or event
Montes Riphaeus and nearby lunar domes, Toni Adrover

Montes Riphaeus and nearby lunar domes

Acquisition type: Lucky imaging
Montes Riphaeus and nearby lunar domes, Toni Adrover

Montes Riphaeus and nearby lunar domes

Acquisition type: Lucky imaging

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Description

-a remarkably bright group, occupying an isolated position in the Mare Procellarum south of Landsberg, and extending for more than 100 miles in a meridional direction. They are most closely aggregated at a point nearly due east of Euclides, from which they throw off long-branching arms to the north and south, those on the north bifurcating and gradually sinking to the level of the plain. The loftiest peaks are near the extremity of this section, one of them rising to 3,000 feet.

Directly north of Landsberg D (10 km) are three large but low domes, La 1 to 3. Their diameters are 20, 25 and 19 kilometers with a height of 120, 80 and 120 meters.

Darney Chi is a striking example of a lunar kipuka. By definition a lunar kipuka is an upwarp consisting of old highland material that has not been flooded by lava. So in fact no volcanic strukture.

Kipuka is a Hawaiian word for an island. In volcanology it is an island of older land surrounded by a younger lava flow. In the middle of Mare Cognitum - the Known Sea (known because it is where Ranger 7 acquired the first high resolution images of the Moon) - are a number of kipukas

kipukas are usually thought of as being flatter than crater rims - like previous flat-lying ground that is preserved just because it happened to be a little higher than younger lavas. In this case, the kipuka is an 18 km long, D-shaped piece of lighter-hued land that has a Greek letter designation: Darney Chi. Compared to the surrounding dark mare, the surface of Chi looks older because it has more "large" craters and is crossed by almost eroded away rilles.

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