People have been observing amazing things for thousands of years. heavenly body, called the Earth's satellite - the Moon. The first astronomers noticed dark areas of various sizes on its surface, considering them to be 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 clearly visible celestial body in the sky. This is the only astronomical object visited by man.
There are several hypotheses for the origin of the Moon:
- The destruction of the planet Phaeton, which collided with a comet in orbit of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Some of its fragments rushed towards the Sun, and one towards the Earth, forming a system with a satellite.
- When Phaeton was destroyed, the remaining core changed its orbit, “turning” into Venus, and the Moon is the former satellite of Phaeton, which was captured by the Earth in its orbit.
- The Moon is the preserved core of Phaethon after its destruction.
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 an atmosphere, they realized that there could be no talk of water on the Moon. According to tradition, the name “Lunar Seas and Oceans” remained.
A more detailed study of the Moon began with the first landing on its surface of the Soviet Luna-2 spacecraft in 1959. The subsequent Luna-3 spacecraft made it possible for the first time to capture in photographs its far side, which remains invisible from Earth. In 1966, with the help of the Lunokhod, the soil structure was established.
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 last years many skeptics talk about the falsification of this event.
The Moon is located at a huge distance from the Earth by human standards - 384,467 km, which is approximately 30 diameters of the globe. In relation to our planet, the Moon has a diameter slightly larger than a quarter of the Earth and makes a complete revolution around it in an elliptical orbit in 27.32166 days.
The Moon consists of a crust, mantle and core. Its surface is covered with a mixture of dust and rocky debris formed from constant collisions with meteorites. The atmosphere of the Moon is very rarefied, which leads to sharp fluctuations 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 and amounts to -35°C. Due to the thin atmosphere, the sky on the Moon is constantly black, and not blue, as on Earth in clear weather.
Moon surface map
Observing the Moon from Earth, even with the naked eye you can see light and dark spots on it different shapes and magnitude. 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 the lunar seas and oceans, believing that there was water on the Moon, just like on Earth. The light areas were considered dry land. A map of the Moon's seas 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'll find out about them a little later. After Galileo discovered the mountains on the Moon, they began to be given names similar to those on Earth.
Craters are special ring mountains called circuses, which also received their names in honor of the great scientists of antiquity. After the discovery and photographing of the far side of the Moon by Soviet astronomers using spacecraft, craters with the names of domestic scientists and researchers appeared on the map.
All this is plotted in detail on the lunar map of both of its hemispheres, used in astronomy, because man does not lose hope not only of landing on the Moon again, but also of building bases, establishing a search for minerals and creating a colony for full-fledged living.
Mountain systems and craters on the Moon
Craters on the Moon are the most common landform. These multiple traces of the work of meteorites and asteroids over millions of years can be seen on a clear night during a full moon without the aid of optical instruments. Upon closer examination, these works of space art amaze with their uniqueness and grandeur.
History and origin of "moon scars"
Back in 1609, the great scientist Galileo Galilei designed the world's first telescope and had the opportunity to observe the Moon at multiple magnification. It was he who noticed all kinds of craters on its surface, surrounded by “ring” mountains. He called them craters. Now let's find out why there are craters on the Moon and how they were formed.
All of them were mainly formed after the emergence of the solar system, when it was subject to bombardment celestial bodies, left after the destruction of the planets, which rushed across it in huge numbers at crazy 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. We considered theories such 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, still overwhelmingly proves the impact theory from the impact of collisions with meteorites.
Description of lunar craters
Galileo, in his reports and writings, compared the lunar craters to the eyes on the tails of peacocks.
The ring-shaped appearance is the most important feature of the lunar mountains. You won't find anything like this on Earth. Externally, the lunar crater is a depression, around which rise high round shafts, which dot the entire surface of the Moon.
Lunar craters bear some resemblance to terrestrial volcanic craters. Unlike those on Earth, the peaks of the lunar mountains are not so 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 surface of the satellite itself.
The sizes of craters on the Moon can vary in diameter and depth. The diameter can be either tiny, up to several meters, or huge, reaching hundreds of kilometers.
The larger the crater, the deeper it will be. The depth can reach 100 m. The outer shaft of large “lunar bowls” more than 100 km rises above the surface up to 5 km.
Among the relief features that distinguish lunar craters, the following can be distinguished:
- Inner slope;
- Outer slope;
- The depth of the crater bowl itself;
- The system and length of the rays diverging from the outer shaft;
- The central peak on the crater floor, which occurs in large ones, is more than 25 km in diameter.
- Al-Battani C is a spherical crater with a sharp shaft, up to 10 km in diameter;
- Bio - the same Al-Battani C, but with a flat bottom, from 10 to 15 km;
- Sosigenes is an impact crater ranging in size from 15 to 25 km;
- Triesnecker is a lunar crater with a diameter of up to 50 km, with a sharp peak in the center;
- Tycho - craters with a terrace-like slope and a flat bottom, over 50 km.
The largest craters on the Moon
The history of exploration of lunar craters can be read by the names given to them by their explorers. Once Galileo discovered them with a telescope, many scientists trying to create a map came up with their own names for them. The lunar mountains of the Caucasus, Vesuvius, and the Apennines appeared...
The names of the craters were given in honor of the scientists Plato, Ptolemy, Galileo, and in honor of St. Catherine. After the publication of the map of the reverse side by Soviet scientists, the crater named after them appeared. Tsiolkovsky, Gagarin, Korolev and others.
The largest crater officially listed is Hertzsprung. Its diameter is 591 km. It is invisible to us because 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 is named Grimaldi, named after the Italian physicist. Its diameter is 237 km. Crimea can freely be located inside it.
The third huge lunar crater is Ptolemy. Its width across is about 180 km.
Oceans and seas on the Moon
Lunar seas are also a bizarre form of relief on the surface of the satellite 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
Seas first appeared on 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 was no atmosphere on the Earth’s satellite and there was no possibility of the presence of moisture, they did not fundamentally change it.
The seas on the Moon are strange dark valleys on the part visible from Earth; they 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 extend over distances from 200 to 1000 km in diameter.
The seas appear dark to us because they do not reflect sunlight well. The depth from the surface of the satellite can reach 3 km, which is the size of the Sea of the Rains on the Moon.
The largest sea is called the Ocean of Storms. This lowland extends for 2000 km.
The visible seas on the Moon are located inside ring-shaped mountain ranges, which also have their own names. The Sea of Clarity is located near the Serpentine Ridge. Its diameter is 700 km, but this is not what makes it remarkable. Of interest are the different colors of lava that stretch along its bottom. A large positive gravity anomaly has been discovered in the Sea of Clarity.
The most famous seas, bays and lakes
Among the seas we can distinguish such as the sea of Humidity, Abundance, Rain, Waves, Clouds, Islands, Crisis, Foam, Known. On the far side of the Moon there is the Sea of Moscow.
In addition to the only Ocean of Storms and seas, there are bays, lakes and even swamps on the Moon, which have their own official names. Let's look at the most interesting ones.
The lakes received such names as Lake of Awe, Spring, Oblivion, Tenderness, Persistence, and Hatred. The bays include Loyalty, Love, Tenderness and Good Luck. The swamps have corresponding names - Rotting, Sleeping and Epidemics.
There are some facts related to the seas on the surface of the Earth's satellite:
- The Sea of Tranquility on the Moon is famous for the fact that it was on it that man first set foot. In 1969, American astronauts carried out the first lunar landing in human history.
- Rainbow Bay is famous for the exploration nearby by the Lunokhod 1 rover in 1970.
- The Soviet “Lunokhod-2” conducted its research on the surface near the Sea of Clarity.
- In the Sea of Plenty, the Luna-16 probe in 1970 took lunar soil for a sample and delivered it to Earth.
- The Poznannoye 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 from close range.
The seas and craters of the Moon, thanks to modern research and photography, are mapped in great detail on the lunar surface. Despite this, the Earth’s satellite contains a lot of secrets and mysteries that have yet to be solved by man. The whole world is eagerly awaiting the departure of the first colony, which will lift the veil a little more on this amazing place in our solar system.
If you have ever admired the bright full Moon, you may have noticed dark spots on the surface of its disk. We are talking about famous seas. But what were these formations and was there 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 reveal many interesting details.
Ancient scientists also observed the earth's satellite and could notice dark spots, for which it is allocated 40% lunar surface. We are accustomed to correlating everything with earthly characteristics, so we considered that light areas are mainland, and dark areas – seas.
Even Galileo Galilei suspected that these depressions could be filled with water. But for the first time lunar seas appeared on map 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 was no water in these “seas”, but the name itself stuck.
What are we dealing with?
The lunar maria are considered the largest visual features when viewing the Earth's satellite. This is about lowlands. Characterized by a leveled bottom and filled lava in a solid state. This lava appears 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. IN size the seas stretch out 200-1100 km in diameter and prefer a rounded shape. Upon closer inspection, you will notice that in some places small mountain heights peek out from under the basalt layer. There are many more crater formations on the mainland.
How did you appear?
It's interesting that on dark side Moon the number of seas is much more modest, and they are also smaller in size. Scientists believe that these formations arose due to a series of collisions. Initially, these were craters that gradually filled with lava, creating a mass concentrated in the area (mascons).
But the continents are inferior in gravity to lava accumulations, so when distributing mass could arise symmetry. The earth's gravity, which holds the hemisphere covered by the seas in our review, 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 marine formations is considered Ocean of Storms. The name came from Giovanni Riccioli. Extends to length 2500 km and is characterized irregular shape. You can find it on the western side of the lunar “face”.
It's interesting that in 1969 a mission module landed on the territory of this sea Apollo 12, where Alan Bean and Charles Conrad came. We also managed to get a few samples Ocean of Storms, which turned out to be much lighter in color than in 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 Lake of Happiness or Swamp of Rotting. Let's hope to one day look at these formations in person, but for now let's observe from afar.
The sizes of the seas range from 200 to 1100 km across. The seas are lowlands (for example, the Sea of Rains 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 a dark substance - 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 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, were given names corresponding to their type. Around the seas there are ring-shaped mountain ranges. The Sea of Rains is surrounded by the Alps, the Caucasus, the Apennines, the Carpathians, and the Jura. Sea of Nectar - Altai and Pyrenees mountains. The Eastern Sea is surrounded by the Cordillera and the Roca Mountains. In the seas there are sometimes 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 an assumption that marine formations on the Moon were formed as a result of only a few collisions. The craters formed as a result of the impacts were filled with lava and gave birth to mascons. Lava rocks are heavier than continental rocks, which could cause an asymmetry in the distribution of lunar mass, as a result of which the Earth’s gravity forever fixed the “marine” hemisphere of the Moon in the direction of our planet. The far side of the Moon is characterized by “pools” - very large ring structures with a diameter of more than 300 km. The Eastern Sea, the Moscow Sea and others have two annular shafts - external and internal, with a diameter ratio of 2/1. Sometimes the inner rings are severely 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 peculiarities |
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-term lunar phenomena | |
| Selenology | Geology (chronology) Mineralogy Giant impact theory KREEP ALSEP Laser ranging of the Moon Late heavy bombardment Moon rocks Regolith Meteorites | |
| Study | Research Project Apollo Colonization Lunar Conspiracy | |
| Other | Calendar Month Crescent Mythology Art Moon Illusion Origin | |
| See also: Solar system Satellites of planets ((AMS Lunar Exploration)) | ||
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See what “Moon Seas” are in other dictionaries:
The name given to large, dark, nearly flat areas of the Moon's surface located below its average level. Lunar maria occupy 17% of the Moon's surface; they are covered with rocks similar to terrestrial basalts, whose age is 3-4.5 billion years ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
The name given to large, dark, almost flat areas of the Moon's surface located below its average level. Lunar maria occupy 17% of the Moon's surface; they are covered with rocks similar to terrestrial basalts, which are 3–4.5 billion years old. * * * LUNAR... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
Flat spaces on the surface of the Moon (See Moon), having the appearance of extended dark spots... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
Name large dark, almost flat areas of the Moon's surface located below its avg. level. Lunar surfaces occupy 17% of the lunar surface; they are covered with rocks similar to terrestrial basalts, some 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 elevated underwater terrain. Some seas are part of another sea (for example, the Aegean Sea is part of the Mediterranean). The term is also used to name very large... ... Wikipedia
View of the Moon during a lunar eclipse Diagram of a lunar eclipse Moon eclipse 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
lunar obelisks- 8 objects of regular conical shape, reminiscent of the famous Cleopatra’s Needle in the city. 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
Doctor pedagogical sciences E. LEVITAN.
Take a close look at this photographic map of the full moon.
Schematic map of the side of the Moon visible from Earth.
Nine planets orbit our Sun, most of them have satellites. But not all planets have the same number of satellites. Mercury and Venus have neither. Mars has two tiny ones - Phobos and Deimos. Giant planets have large families - up to twenty moons. But our Earth and distant tiny Pluto each have one satellite: the Earth has the Moon, Pluto has a satellite named Charon. Very little is known about Pluto (and even more so about Charon). Only recently, at the beginning of this year, was it possible to obtain the very first photograph of Charon. But people have been observing the Moon for many thousands of years. It still attracts our attention. At the beginning of 1998, the American spacecraft Lunar Prospector (lunar reconnaissance aircraft) entered lunar orbit. He will circle the Moon for a whole year, trying to find out whether there is an “underground” lake of ordinary liquid water in the area of the south pole. We won’t have long to wait, and we’ll probably learn something new that no one has known about the Moon before.
For now, let's just talk about some of the features of our planet's only natural satellite.
The moon has long amazed the inhabitants of the Earth with its beauty and at the same time always seemed somehow mysterious, enigmatic. Even in very ancient times, people noticed that the appearance of the Moon always changes in a strictly defined order. The lunar phases repeat at precisely defined intervals. And therefore, one of the first calendars that people began to use in Everyday life, was lunar.
For many centuries, the Moon has asked difficult riddles for earthlings. The greatest scientists, such as Galileo, Newton, Euler and others, enriched the science of the Universe with many discoveries, solving “lunar” problems.
There are many phenomena that occur in the sky and on Earth thanks to the Moon. And this is not only a change in lunar phases, due to the fact that the lunar ball, which shines with reflected light, occupies for a month different position relative to the Sun and Earth. These include such magnificent celestial spectacles as eclipses of the Sun and Moon. The moon can turn (in moments of complete solar eclipses) a clear sunny day into real night.
Of course, it is also amazing that with its gravity the Moon raises water in the earth’s oceans and seas. Sailors and residents of coastal areas are familiar with this phenomenon: twice a day there are high tides (within six hours the sea rises) and low tides (within the next six hours the sea recedes).
The Earth also shows the Moon its strength: it has, as it were, “bewitched” and turned the Moon to one side forever. Each of you can see for yourself that the same side of the Moon is always looking at the Earth by observing the Moon in different phases and especially during the full moon. What people don’t see on its surface at this time! Large dark spots on the Moon visible from the Earth (those that are commonly called lunar seas) in the imagination of observers fancifully merge, forming different pictures. Some people think they see a funny face there, others - a bunny, others - a beautiful woman's face, the fourth - an ugly dwarf who is dragging a heavy backpack...
One of my little students (I teach an elective course “Your Universe” to fifth-graders), looking at a photograph of the full Moon, exclaimed: “No, the dwarf is not carrying a backpack at all. He is just standing in front of us, turning his big head and spreading his arms to the sides!” . If you agree with this girl and with everyone who thinks that you can see the image of a dwarf on the Moon, you will be able to quickly remember the names of several lunar seas. This is the Sea of Clarity (the dwarf's head), the Sea of Tranquility (his torso), the Sea of Nectar (one leg - the one to our left), the Sea of Abundance (the other leg), the Sea of Crises (part of one hand - to our right), the Sea Parov (part of the other hand). The Sea of Vapors is small and is not very visible to the naked eye, but the rest of the named lunar seas are visible quite clearly. From the first letters of their names, it seems that the name of the dwarf is obtained - YASNIK. This word will help you immediately remember which sea is called what.
The “lunar dwarf” looks at us from the right side of the Moon, and a significant part of the left is occupied by the large Ocean of Storms with its adjacent seas (above - the Sea of Rains, below - the Sea of Humidity and the Sea of Clouds).
I think you already know this, but just in case, let me remind you that there is no water in the lunar ocean and seas. Maybe you even remember the lines from Gianni Rodari's poem:
By the lunar sea
Special secret -
It doesn't look like the sea.
The waters in this sea
Not a bit
And there are no fish either.
In the waves of it
Impossible to dive
You can't splash around in them
You can't drown.
Swim in that sea
Convenient only for those
Who swim
He still can’t do it at all!
Those of you who look at the Moon with even a small pair of binoculars will clearly see not only the lunar maria (dark areas) and continental areas (light areas), but also some lunar craters (ring mountains on the Moon). With binoculars, the Tycho crater is especially clearly visible on a full moon with beautiful light rays diverging from it like meridians from the pole to geographical globe. It is even more interesting to observe the Moon through good large binoculars. Our magazine recently spoke in detail about the cycle of such observations (see “Science and Life” No. 4, 1998).
Try to see everything that we talked about here today with your own eyes and sketch the location of the lunar seas and the Tycho crater with its ray system. And if you complete this task over two or three full moons, and then compare the sketches, you will be able to make sure that the same picture is visible on the Moon each time. That is, the Moon really faces us with one side.
But you probably know that scientists managed to create maps of the other far side of the Moon, invisible from Earth, an atlas and a globe of the entire Moon. This was done with the help of astronautics. Flights of automatic interplanetary stations to the Moon, lunar probes and artificial satellites of the Moon helped. The far side of the Moon was first photographed by our automatic interplanetary station Luna-3 in 1959.
Perhaps someone will have a question: does the Moon actually rotate around its axis? Since it is “enchanted”, maybe it doesn’t rotate? This is, of course, not true.
There is a very simple experiment that will help each of you to see for yourself that the Moon rotates around an axis, and to convince your friends and relatives of this.
Place a chair in the middle of the room. Announce to the audience that the chair is the Earth, and you yourself will portray the Moon. Let the audience watch as you move around the chair with side steps, while remaining facing the chair at all times. Walking around the chair, you will simultaneously make one revolution around its axis. And then you will all be convinced together: the Moon rotates, but not as fast as the Earth; the time of one revolution of the Moon around its axis (27.3 days) is exactly equal to the time of the Moon’s revolution around the Earth. At the same time, it turns out that the Sun illuminates one side or the other of the Moon. This means that there is both day and night, but they last on the Moon for two weeks! If we remember that there is no atmosphere on the Moon, it becomes clear: during the long day, the surface of the Moon becomes very hot, and at night it cools to a very low temperature.
As you know, people have visited the side of the Moon visible from Earth several times, but no earthling has yet set foot on its far side. Over time this will certainly happen. You can, of course, fantasize that earthlings will discover lunar bases there, once built by aliens... But scientists are convinced that none of this will happen. Even now they have a fairly good idea of the far side of the Moon and understand that nothing special (let alone supernatural) will be found there.
The lunar seas on the Moon have nothing in common with what the word “sea” means in our understanding; they are waterless. So what are the seas on the Moon like? Who gave them so much interesting names? Lunar seas are dark, smooth and fairly large areas of the lunar surface visible to us from Earth, a kind of pits.
Seas on the Moon - what kind of phenomenon?
Medieval astronomers, who first saw these areas on the Moon, hypothesized that they were seas filled with water. Subsequently, these areas were called quite romantically: 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 and plains. They were formed by streams of solidified lava pouring out of crevices in the lunar crust, which appeared as a result of its attack by meteorites. Due to the fact that solidified lava has a darker color than the rest of the surface of the Moon, the lunar seas are visible from Earth in the form of extensive dark spots.
Ocean of Storms
The largest lunar sea, bearing Storms, has a length of more than 2,000 kilometers, and in total the amazing depressions occupy approximately 16% of the satellite’s surface. This is the most extensive lava spill on the Moon. What is unusual is that it does not, that is, it suggests the assumption that there were no cosmic impacts on it. And, perhaps, lava simply flowed from neighboring dents.
Further clockwise, three clearly visible rounded seas open up to us - Rain, Clarity and Calm. All copyrights for these titles belong to Riccioli and Grimaldi, presumably people with very difficult characters.
Features of the Sea of Rains
The Lunar Sea of Rain is the most terrible 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 bursts, which were enough to form the Ocean of Storms. The “mosquito bald spot” in the Sea of Rains is quite immodest, but just the opposite, on the far side of the lunar surface, shock wave the Van der Graaff crater bulged. At this point in time, somewhere in the Sea of Rains, the Chinese “Jade Hare” (lunar rover “Yutu”) has gone into the unmanifested, which has already completed its mission in the winter of 2013-2014 and has now fallen into its last sleep, occasionally, once every few months, modestly snoring to the delight of earthly radio amateurs.
Sea of Clarity
It has a shock origin and also has a maskon, almost as good as the previous one. Of all the lunar dents, these are the two most powerful. In the eastern part of this sea the legendary Soviet “Lunokhod-2” froze. It unsuccessfully sank into a system of nested craters, after which it was covered with lunar dust and became stuck. But, in spite of everything, he selflessly crawled across this sea for four whole months in 1973. But in the Sea of Tranquility there are no gravitational anomalies. It does not have a shock origin. Presumably, its formation is a consequence of the current from the Sea of Clarity. Its fame can be explained by the fact that in the summer of 1969, the American Apollo 11 landed there, from which the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong, emerged, who uttered the catchphrase about a small step and a giant leap.
Sea of Plenty
Next, we are presented with another unimpacted lunar sea - Abundance. It has a small, but rather strange lowland. It seems that the lowland has been there since very ancient times, but the lava flowed billions of years later. It's unclear where it came from. This sea is famous 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 there are two more seas - dents with very clear gravitational anomalies. To the north is the Sea of Crises, to the south is the Sea of Nectar.
In general, these names are the fruit of the wild imagination of intricate Italians. 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 extracted soil there and returned home. And no one had any more desire to appear there from Earth. And they never tried for “nectar” at all.
The Sea of Nectar is one of the very first seas of the Moon. They predict that he will 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 southwest of the center of the lunar disk - these are the seas of Clouds, Humidity and Known (emphasis on “a”).
The Sea of Clouds and Poznannoe are non-impact formations and are included in common system Ocean of Storms. The Sea of Humidity is located somewhat on the outskirts and has its own very extensive mascon. The Sea of Clouds is interesting because it formed much later in a place where there were previously many craters. When lava began to spread across all the lowlands, this area was flooded along with the ancient craters. But they are still visible to us, the very edges, in the form of numerous circular low hills. Of course, they are visible only through a normal telescope; pseudo-equipment will not show this. Besides everything, 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 for 120 kilometers, its height is about 300 meters.
In September 2013, a meteorite the size of a car accidentally fell into this sea and exploded in a spectacular manner. Spanish astronomers who recorded this event claim that this is the largest lunar meteorite that humanity has ever seen. There is still a lot of debris walking on the Moon from the main one between Mars and Jupiter. IN different time many observers talked about some exciting and mysterious “sparkles” on the surface of the Moon - that’s exactly what it is. The Mascon Sea of Humidity is ideal for exploring. Throughout 2012, two NASA probes flew around the Moon, engaged in specific gravimetry (GRAIL program), thanks to them a more or less clear map of all gravitational anomalies of the Moon was compiled, and photographs of the lunar seas were taken. But nothing is known about the origin and history of occurrence there; there are no samples from there.
But the name of the last sea on our list - Poznannoye - appeared in 1964. It was not the Italians who tried, but the International Space Committee. It got its name because it gave sufficient quantity successful launches to all lunar programs and delivery of soil samples.
Why don't the lunar seas disappear?
A natural question arises: “Why did the Moon suffer so much? And why, in such a strange mystical way, is it all beaten up, while the Earth is unharmed and very beautiful?” Has Luna really hired herself out to work as some kind of part-time space shield? Not at all. The moon is not a shield for our planet. And the space debris flying into both of them is more or less evenly distributed. And, most likely, even more into the Earth - it is larger. The Moon simply does not have the ability to heal wounds. Over the four and a half billion years of its history, it has retained traces of almost all the blows that were dealt to it from space. There is nothing to heal them with - there is no water and no water for erosion and smoothing; there is no vegetation to cover faults and craters. The only impact 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 regolith everywhere. This is basalt rock ground into a kind of powder by an unimaginably grueling thresher (Neil Armstrong once said that regolith smells of smoke and shot percussion caps). And the Earth immediately heals and heals all battle wounds. And compared to the Moon, this happens quite lightning fast. Small pits disappear without a trace, and large impact craters, of course, leave their mark, but they become very swollen and overgrown. And there are enough such scars on our planet.