Lunar Science: Mountains of The Moon | NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

Lunar Science: Mountains of The Moon | NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

Most mountains on the Earth are formed as plates collide and the crust buckles. Not so for the Moon, where mountains are formed as a result of impacts. Images taken looking across the landscape rather than straight down really bring out topography and help us visualize the lunar landscape. However such images can only be taken as the spacecraft rolls to the side, in this case about 70°, so the opportunities are limited. Foreground is about 15 km wide, view is northeast across the north rim of Cabeus Crater.

Panoramic view looking across the North rim of Cabeus Crater from the SW. The distance from left to right is about 75-km and from foreground to background in the center is about 50-km. The U.S. Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) impact on October 9, 2009, was just off the bottom center of the panorama.

Cabeus Crater is relatively old, 100 km in diameter, and contains significant areas of permanent shadow. Such regions are of great interest because they may harbor significant deposits of ices (water, methane, etc). Cabeus Crater is most famous as the site of the U.S. Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) Centaur rocket upper stage impact (October 9, 2009) that was intended to excavate and eject any volatiles that may be in the regolith (what we call the lunar soil). Though analyses of data collected during the impact are still ongoing, preliminary results suggest that yes, significant amounts of water ice may be trapped in these shadowed regions (at least at this one spot).

Cabeus is a lunar impact crater that is located about 100 km (62 mi) from the south pole of the Moon. At this location the crater is seen obliquely from Earth, and it is almost perpetually in deep shadow due to lack of sunlight. Hence, not much detail can be seen of this crater, even from orbit. Through a telescope, this crater appears near the southern limb of the Moon, to the west of the crater Malapert and to the south-southwest of Newton.

Two and a half days after the LCROSS impact the LRO spacecraft slewed 70° back towards Cabeus Crater to allow the  Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) to acquire an overview image of a portion of the northern rim. The large mountain (or massif) in the right background is a portion of the ancient rim of the South Pole-Aitken basin, it rises some 6000 meters (19,685 feet) above the surrounding plains, and more than 9200 meters (30,184 feet) above the floor of Cabeus Crater—taller than any mountain on the Earth. On the Moon mountains are formed in only minutes as huge amounts of energy are released when asteroids and comets slam into the surface at velocities greater than 16 km per second (more than ten times faster than a speeding bullet). In contrast, mountains on the Earth typically form over millions of years during slow-motion collisions of tectonic plates.

Future astronauts will see the same view as they descend to the surface for a polar landing. Explore the rim of Cabeus on your own as you plan your landing spot!

Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

Text Credit: Mark Robinson
Release Date: Nov. 17, 2009

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