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In addition to mountains, valleys, and impact craters, the following surface features have received names in the Lunar nomenclature, many of them named after a nearby crater or mountain. The listed diameter for these features is the longest dimension that contains the entire geological formation.
Geological studies of the Moon are based on a combination of Earth-based telescope observations, measurements from orbiting spacecraft, lunar samples, and geophysical data. . Six locations were sampled directly during the crewed Apollo program landings from 1969 to 1972, which returned 382 kilograms (842 lb) of lunar rock and lunar soil to Earth [8] In addition, three robotic Soviet Luna ...
The Pre-Nectarian period is defined from the point at which the lunar crust formed, to the time of the Nectaris impact event. Nectaris is a multi-ring impact basin that formed on the near side of the Moon, and its ejecta blanket serves as a useful stratigraphic marker. 30 impact basins from this period are recognized, the oldest of which is the South Pole–Aitken basin.
This is a list of named lunar craters. The large majority of these features are impact craters. The crater nomenclature is governed by the International Astronomical Union, and this listing only includes features that are officially recognized by that scientific society.
The Genesis Rock (sample 15415) is a sample of Moon rock retrieved by Apollo 15 astronauts James Irwin and David Scott in 1971 during the second lunar EVA, at Spur crater on Earth's Moon. With a mass of c. 270 grams (4,200 grains), [1] it is currently stored at the Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility in Houston, Texas.
The largest crater called such is about 290 km (180 mi) across in diameter, located near the lunar south pole. However, it is believed that many of the lunar maria were formed by giant impacts, with the resulting depression filled by upwelling lava. Craters typically will have some or all of the following features:
The ages of the mare basalts have been determined both by direct radiometric dating and by the technique of crater counting.The radiometric ages range from about 3.16 to 4.2 billion years old (Ga), [4] whereas the youngest ages determined from crater counting are about 1.2 Ga. [5] Updated measurements of samples collected by the Chang’e-5 mission show that some lunar basalts could be as ...
The main lunar gravity features are mascons, large positive gravitational anomalies associated with some of the giant impact basins, partly caused by the dense mare basaltic lava flows that fill those basins. [83] [84] The anomalies greatly influence the orbit of spacecraft about the Moon. There are some puzzles: lava flows by themselves cannot ...