What are the seas on the moon called. Lunar seas - what are they? The largest craters of the moon

The dimensions of the seas are from 200 to 1100 km in diameter. The seas are lowlands (for example, the Sea of ​​Rains is located 3 km below the surrounding terrain) 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 - basalt-type lava, 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 ​​Rains is surrounded by the Alps, the Caucasus, the Apennines, the Carpathians, and the Jura. The Sea of ​​Nectar - 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 ​​Clouds.

On the far side of the Moon there are few seas 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 an asymmetry in the distribution of the lunar mass, as a result of which the Earth's gravity permanently fixed the "sea" hemisphere of the Moon in the direction of our planet. The far side of the Moon is characterized by "pools" - very large ring structures, more than 300 km in diameter. The Eastern Sea, the Moscow Sea and others have two annular shafts - external and internal, in a ratio of diameters of 2/1. Sometimes the inner rings are badly damaged.

Some facts about the lunar seas

Names of seas, bays, lakes and marshes 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

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See what "Lunar seas" are in other dictionaries:

The name for 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 ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

The name for 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 New York (USA), located on a flat area of ​​the lunar Sea of ​​Tranquility on an area of ​​165 x 225 meters. E. Moon obeliskes D. Mondobelisken ... Explanatory ufological dictionary with equivalents in English and German

Lunar seas on the Moon have nothing to do with what in our understanding means the word "sea", they are waterless. So what are the seas on the moon? Who gave them such interesting names? Lunar seas are dark, flat and rather large areas of the lunar surface visible to us from Earth, a kind of foundation pits.

The seas on the moon - what kind of phenomenon?

Medieval astronomers, who first saw these areas on the moon, put forward the assumption that they are precisely seas filled with water. In the future, these areas were called quite romantic: the Sea of ​​Tranquility, the Sea of ​​Abundance, the Sea of ​​Rains, etc. As it turned out in reality, the lunar seas and oceans are lowlands, plains. Their formation was served by streams of solidified lava pouring out from the cracks of the lunar crust, which appeared as a result of its attack by meteorites. Due to the fact that the frozen lava has a darker color than the rest of the moon's surface, from the Earth the lunar seas are visible precisely in the form of extensive dark spots.

Ocean of Storms

The largest lunar sea, bearing the Tempests, is more than 2,000 kilometers long, and in total, amazing depressions occupy about 16% of the satellite's surface. It is the most extensive lava spill on the Moon. It is unusual that it does not, that is, the assumption suggests itself that cosmic strikes did not fall on it. And, perhaps, the lava just flowed from the neighboring dents.

Further clockwise, we see three well-visible rounded seas - Rains, Clarity and Tranquility. All copyrights for these names belong to Riccioli and Grimaldi, presumably people with a very difficult character.

Features of the Sea of ​​Rains

Lunar Sea of ​​Rains is the worst scar on the face of the Moon. According to some known data, this point was hit more than once: by asteroids and even, quite possibly, by the nucleus of the comet itself. The first time was about 3.8 billion years ago. Lava poured out from there in several splashes, which were enough to form the Ocean of Storms. The "mosquito bald patch" in the Sea of ​​Rains is rather immodest, but just opposite, on the opposite side of the lunar surface, the van der Graaff crater bulged out as a shock wave. At this point in time, somewhere in the Sea of ​​Rains, he went into the undeveloped Chinese "Jade Hare" (lunar rover "Yuytu"), which had already completed its mission in the winter of 2013-2014 and now fell into its last sleep, occasionally, once every few months, modestly snoring to the delight of earthly radio amateurs.

Sea of ​​Clarity

It has a percussive origin and also with a maskon, almost not inferior to the previous one. Of all the moon dents, these are the two most powerful. In the eastern part of this sea, the legendary Soviet Lunokhod-2 froze. It unsuccessfully drowned in a system of nested craters, after which it was covered with moon dust and stuck. But, in spite of everything, he selflessly crawled along this sea for four whole months in 1973. But in the Sea of ​​Tranquility there are no gravitational anomalies. It has no impact origin. Presumably, its formation is a consequence of the current from the Sea of ​​Clarity. Its fame is explained by the event that in the summer of 1969 the American Apollo 11 landed there, from which the first man on the moon emerged, Neil Armstrong, who uttered the catchphrase about a small step and a giant leap.

Sea of ​​Abundance

Further to our attention is presented another unstressed lunar sea - Abundance. It has a small, but rather strange It seems that the lowland was present there since very ancient times, but lava flowed billions of years later. Where - it is not clear. This sea is known for the fact that in 1970 the Soviet "Luna-16" scooped up soil there and delivered it to Earth. So much for abundance. To the north and south of the Sea of ​​Plenty are two more seas - dents with quite clear gravitational anomalies. To the north - the Sea of ​​Crises, to the south - the Sea of ​​Nectar.

In general, these names are the fruit of the fanciful Italians' fantasy. However, it is not clear how to explain the fact that two of our lunar stations suffered crashes and accidents in the Sea of ​​Crises. Our third station, it should be noted, successfully dug the soil there and returned home. And no one had more desire to appear there from the Earth. And they never tried for "nectar" at all.

The Sea of ​​Nectar is one of the very first seas of the Moon. He is predicted to be seventy million years older than the Sea of ​​Rains. And there are only three large lunar seas left, they are located in a triangle to the south-west of the center of the lunar disk - these are the seas of Clouds, Humidity and Posed (stress on "a").

The Seas of Clouds and the Known are non-shock formations and are part of the general system of the Ocean of Storms. The Moist Sea is located somewhat on the outskirts and has its own very extensive mascon. The Sea of ​​Clouds is interesting in that it formed much later in a place where there were many craters in the past. When lava began to pour over all the lowlands, this area was flooded along with ancient craters. But they are still visible to us, the very edges, in the form of numerous circular low hills. Of course, they can only be seen through a normal telescope, pseudo-equipment will not show this. In addition, there is one interesting object in the Sea of ​​Clouds - the Straight Wall. It is a fracture of the lunar crust in the form of a height difference on flat terrain, which runs in an almost straight line of 120 kilometers, its height is about 300 meters.

In September 2013, a car-sized meteorite unsuccessfully hit this sea, exploding in a picturesque way. The Spanish astronomers who recorded this event claim that this is the largest lunar meteorite of all that humanity imagined to see. A lot of all debris from the main thing between Mars and Jupiter still walks on the Moon. At different times, many observers talked about some exciting and mysterious "sparks" on the surface of the Moon - this is exactly what it is. The Muscon Sea of ​​Humidity is ideal for exploring. Throughout 2012, two NASA probes flew around the Moon, were engaged in specific gravimetry (the GRAIL program), thanks to them, a more or less clear map of all the gravitational anomalies of the Moon was compiled, and photos of the lunar seas were also taken. But about the origin and history of occurrence, nothing is known there, there are no samples from there.

But the name of the last sea from our list - Known - appeared in 1964. It was not the Italians who did their best, but the International Space Committee. It got its name because it gave a sufficient number of successful launches for all lunar programs and deliveries of soil samples.

Why don't the lunar seas disappear?

A natural question arises: "Why did the Moon suffer so much? And why is it all beaten up in such a strange mystical way, and the Earth is unharmed and very beautiful?" Was Luna hired to work part-time as a kind of space shield? Not at all. The moon is not a shield for our planet. And space debris flying in both of them is more or less evenly distributed. And, more likely, to the Earth even more - it is larger. It's just that the Moon does not have the ability to heal wounds. For four and a half billion years of its history, it has retained the traces of almost all the blows that were inflicted on it from space. There is nothing to heal them - there is no and no water for erosion and smoothing; no vegetation to cover faults and craters. The only effect on the moon is solar radiation. Thanks to her, the light scars of the impact craters darken over the centuries, that's all. The soil of the Moon is everywhere - regolith. This is a basalt rock ground into a certain powder by an inconceivably exhausting thresher (Neil Armstrong once said that the regolith smells like fumes and shot pistons). And the Earth immediately tightens and heals all battle wounds. And in comparison with the Moon, this happens quite lightning fast. Small pits disappear without a trace, and large impact craters, of course, leave their mark, but they swell and overgrow strongly. And there are plenty of such scars on our planet.

Planetary scientists from the US Ohio State University (OSU) have explained the origin of the most prominent features of the Moon's landscape - the "seas" and "oceans." Scientists believe that they originated in a collision with an asteroid that crashed into the moon from the opposite side. According to new research, an extremely large object once struck the invisible side of the Moon and was able to send a shock wave even through the lunar core to the side of the Moon that faces the Earth. The lunar crust there in places "peeled off" and "burst" - and now the Moon has characteristic scars from that old cataclysm. This discovery is of great importance for the future exploration of lunar minerals, and besides, it will probably help solve some of the earth's geological mysteries associated with the impact on the Earth of collisions with large celestial bodies. Already the first flights of the Soviet lunar stations and American "Apollo" showed that the shape of the moon is far from an ideal sphere. And the most significant deviations from this sphere are observed in two places at once, and the bulge on the side that is always facing the Earth corresponds to a dent on the invisible side of the Moon. However, for a long time it was believed that these surface features are caused only by the influence of earth's gravity, which "pulled" this hump out of the moon at the dawn of its existence, when the lunar surface was molten and plastic.
Now, Laramie Potts and Ohio State University geoscience professor Ralph von Frese have been able to explain these features to ancient asteroid impacts. Potts and von Frese came to this conclusion after studying the data on variations in the lunar gravitational field (which, in principle, allows you to display a map of the lunar "entrails" and find indications of the concentration of minerals useful to humans), obtained with the help of NASA satellites Clementine "(Clementine, DSPSE) and Lunar Prospector. It was expected that material displacements caused by powerful collisions with large celestial bodies with the absorption of collision energy (these places correspond to huge impact craters on the surface) could be tracked in layers below the lunar crust, at the level of the mantle (that is, in a vast layer separating the metal lunar core from its thin outer crust), but nothing more. However, it turned out that the extensive dents not only correspond to the same bulges on the opposite side of the Moon, but, moreover, similar protrusions are also present in the mantle layer - as if squeezed out by some powerful blow coming straight from the lunar interior. Thus, it is possible to trace the path of shock waves affecting the lunar interior in a certain selected direction.
Under the lunar surface, where the alleged collision occurred, a "concave region" was discovered where the mantle deepens into the core. The "dent" in the core is located 700 kilometers below the surface. - Scientists say they did not expect to see the traces of a "cosmic catastrophe" so deep. It follows from this that the molten layer could not extinguish the powerful impact of the asteroid - and the wave spread further into the depths of the moon. Potts and von Frese believe that all the key events that determined the current pattern of the lunar "seas" took place about 4 billion years ago, during the period when our moon was still geologically active - its core and mantle were then liquid and filled with flowing magma ... The moon in those days was located much closer to the Earth than it is now (later it gradually receded due to tidal interactions), so that the gravitational interactions between these celestial bodies were especially strong. When magma was released from the depths of the Moon by collisions with asteroids and created a kind of vast "hill", the earth's gravity, as it were, "picked up" it and did not release it from its embrace until everything there solidified. So the warped surface on the visible and invisible sides of the Moon and the characteristic internal features connecting the trough and the ledge are a direct legacy of those ancient times that the Moon could never heal. The strange dark valleys - "seas" on the lunar side visible from the Earth are explained by the frozen magma flowing to the surface, and so forever (this is "frozen ocean of magma", in the words of von Frese). Exactly how such vast volumes of magma managed to find their way to the lunar surface remains unclear, but scientists suggest that the most powerful cataclysms discussed above may have provoked the emergence of a geological "hot spot" - the concentration of magma bubbles at the surface. After some time, some of the magma contained there under pressure was able to seep through cracks in the crust.

If you have ever admired the bright full moon, you might have noticed dark spots on the surface of its disk. We are talking about well-known seas... But what are these formations and did they have water in them?

Mysterious satellite of the Earth

moon located at a distance 384 467 km from Earth and shines brightly in the night sky. Its surface can be seen without the use of magnifying devices, and basic binoculars showcase many interesting details.

Ancient scientists also observed an earth satellite and could notice dark spots for which 40% lunar surface. We are accustomed to correlating everything with earthly characteristics, so we considered that light territories are mainland, and dark areas - seas.

Even Galileo Galilei suspected that these cavities could be filled with water. But for the first time the lunar seas appeared on map The moon in 1652... It was compiled by an astronomer from Italy Giovanni Riccioli and physicist Francesco Grimaldi... But further research with improved instruments made it clear that there is no water in these "seas", but the name itself stuck.

What are we dealing with?

The lunar seas are considered to be the largest visual features in an Earth satellite survey. This is about lowlands... They are characterized by a leveled bottom and flooded lava in a solid state. This lava appears to be darker in color than the rest of the surface area.

It is believed that the age of the basalt reaches 3-4.5 billion years... V size the seas stretch out to 200-1100 km in diameter and prefer a rounded shape. On closer inspection, you can see that in some places from under the basalt layer peep out small mountain heights. There are many more crater formations on the mainland.

How did it appear?

I wonder what on the dark side of the moon the number of seas is much more modest, moreover, they are inferior in size. Scientists believe that these formations arose from a series of collisions. Initially, these were craters that gradually filled with lava, creating a mass concentrated in the area (mascons).

But in terms of severity, the continents are inferior to lava accumulations, therefore when distributing mass could arise symmetry... The earth's gravity, which keeps the hemisphere sheltered by the seas in our survey, also played a role. But on the dark side, you can find large pools.

The largest sea on the moon

The largest representative of lunar sea formations is considered Ocean of Storms... The name came from Giovanni Riccioli. In length stretches to 2500 km and is characterized by an irregular shape. You can find it on the western side of the lunar "face".

Interestingly, in 1969 year the mission module has landed on the territory of this sea Apollo 12, where Alan Bean and Charles Konrad have come. We also managed to get a few samples The Ocean of Storms, which turned out to be much lighter in color than the Sea of ​​Tranquility.

P.S

On the moon, you can find many seas, as well as bays, lakes and even swamps. Many are intriguing with their names, like the Lake of Happiness or the Swamp of Decay. Let's hope that one day we will personally look at these formations, but for now we will observe from afar.

Finding and identifying most of the lunar seas with binoculars or the naked eye is a simple task, provided you have a good map of the visible side of the moon. But what about the less noticeable details on the surface of our space neighbor? Most of them go unnoticed. This month we will fix the situation, as we intend to take a look at the lunar lakes, bays and even one swamp. Let's work our way from the lunar east to the lunar west. Before the idea of ​​sending astronauts to the moon grew into the Apollo program, most of the literature used a geocentric (Earth-bound) frame of reference. In the old system, the western edge of the moon was near the western horizon of the earth. Likewise, the eastern edge was facing our eastern horizon. In 1961, the International Astronomical Union decided to swap them. This is contrary to what we see, but it makes obvious sense when viewed from the moon. In this new coordinate system, an astronaut on the moon would see the sun rise in the east and sunset in the west. Therefore, when a surface detail is considered to be east relative to another, we are talking about the lunar east, which coincides with the earth's west, i.e. for an observer in the Northern Hemisphere, the part will be on the right. Likewise, west indicates the lunar west, which faces our east, i.e. to the left for an observer north of the earth's equator. Clear?
The first stop on our journey is the lunar swamp known as Palus Somnii, Sleep Swamp... Lunar swamps, like the seas, are lava-covered areas, but much smaller in size. The Swamp of Sleep covers approximately 177x233 km, bordering the east coast of Mare Tranquilitatis, the Sea of ​​Tranquility. Look for a small, grayish area that looks a bit like a diamond with rounded corners. Unlike the sea, which looks rather smooth through binoculars, the Swamp of Sleep has a raised surface. It would be logical to move from the Swamp of Dreams to Lake of Dreams... Head north across the Sea of ​​Tranquility to the Sea of ​​Clarity, Mare Serenitatis. Pay attention to the tributary, a kind of expansion in the northeast (do not forget, this is the lunar northeast), which seems to flow into the sea. This is Lacus Somniorum, Lake of Dreams, an irregular plateau with indistinct boundaries. If you see Poseidon Crater, covering 95 km across, then you are in the right place. Lake of Dreams merges in the north with Lake of Death, Lacus Mortis. Sounds ominous! It is difficult to say where Dreams end and Death begins - this pair is separated only by a barely noticeable ripple line. Visual Clue: The Lake of Death is located due west of the conspicuous Atlas and Hercules craters. The best time to look for these three landmarks is when the Sun is high above them, between the 5th and 10th days after the new moon. Our next stop is the bridge between the Sea of ​​Tranquility and the Sea of ​​Nectar, Sinus Asperitatis, Bay of Severity... Look for a highly visible pair of craters along its southern shore. The closest of the two is Theophilus and the second is called Kirill... The two-hundred-kilometer-wide Gulf of Severity probably got its name from the parallel mountain ranges that cross the area, and also from the hilly terrain that fringes it to the east and west. To see even a hint of them, you will definitely need giant binoculars. Sinus Medii, Central Bay lives up to its name, as it is located almost in the center of the moon's disk. This small sea, spanning just over 350 km, lies north of the crater line. Ptolemy,Gigolo and Arzakhel that are visible with 10x binoculars. Look for Central Gulf and craters between the 7th and 9th day after the new moon.
One of the most striking sights of the moon is the Sinus Iridum, Bay of Rainbows... On the tenth day after the new moon, the terminator runs across the lunar disk and sheds sunlight on Oceanus Procellarum, the Ocean of Storms. Rising slowly over the largest of the lunar seas, the Sun illuminates an unusual claw-like appendage on the northeastern coast of the ocean. Initially, Rainbow Bay was a full-fledged crater, but after another blow that led to the formation of the Sea of ​​Rains, lava overflowed over the southern wall and created the bay that we admire today. Two capes, Heraclides and Laplace, mark the open entrance of the bay, and the Jura Mountains outline its northern perimeter. And finally, while the moon is not yet full moon, let's find Sinus Roris. Dew Bay... This is not a stand-alone attraction, but rather a continuation of the Ocean of Storms that "flows" into the Sea of ​​Cold. The region has its own name because it has a higher albedo (reflectivity) than both seas. The size varies depending on the source cited, but most indicate a size of about 200 km. I hope you enjoy these underrated attractions throughout June and the year in general. And if you want to get more binocular targets on the moon, be sure to re-read my