All images by Robert Reeves
For over 400 years, legions of lunar cartographers have been surveying the floor of the Moon — first by telescope after which by spacecraft — charting and naming its options.
The ensuing lunar map is consistently evolving. Over time, new names are added whereas current names are dropped or modified after analysis reveals a function to be of a special geological sort. The Worldwide Astronomical Union (IAU) establishes tips for lunar names; their approval is required to make a reputation official. These efforts hold scientific order in how we determine options and navigate the face of the Moon.
However our relationship with the Moon isn’t all science and controlled order. It’s human nature to create endearments for the issues we love. Deep-sky observers bestow unofficial nicknames to many, just like the Lagoon (M8), Rosette (NGC 2237–9/44), and California (NGC 1499) nebulae. Luna is not any exception; it too has its share of fanciful unofficial names for its options.
Human whimsy typically trumps science in these names, such because the Cobra Head on the volcanic supply that when fed flowing lava into Schröter’s Valley. Throughout the Apollo expeditions, many astronauts made their mark on the Moon by giving options unofficial names, similar to Jim Lovell’s well-known Mount Marilyn, which he named after his spouse throughout Apollo 8. Whereas a few of these standard lunar names are ultimately rubber-stamped by the IAU (together with Mount Marilyn in 2017), others don’t seem on a map, however persist by normal acceptance.
The choice of unofficial names introduced right here embrace some modestly proposed by the creator. Whether or not they stick in lunar lexicon depends upon the whims of Moon lovers in all places.
Lunar nicknames carry life and familiarity to a stark and unforgiving panorama that’s nonetheless interesting due to its alien strangeness. For the avid astronomer, the names right here ought to change into as acquainted because the phrases of endearment that we apply to the gems of the Milky Way and past.
1. The Steppingstones
Named by: Robert Reeves
Official identify: Cleomedes, Burckhardt, Geminus, and Messala craters
Measurement: 81 miles (131 km), 34 miles (54 km), 51 miles (82 km), 76 miles (122 km)
Coordinates: centered at 33.5° N, 57.8° E
Function named after: Look of sequential steppingstones
The linear string of 4 giant craters extending north from Mare Crisium (at far decrease proper on this picture) is paying homage to steppingstones main off to an adventuresome place. Every step is a leap via time, as none of those craters are the identical age. The southernmost is flat-floored Cleomedes, an 81-mile-wide (131 kilometers) Nectarian-epoch crater that dates again 3.85 billion to three.95 billion years in the past. The smaller and barely youthful Imbrian-epoch crater Burckhardt follows. Farther north the sharper type of Geminus is even youthful, courting to the Eratosthenian epoch. The ultimate steppingstone, huge, ruined, pre-Nectarian-epoch Messala, is the oldest.
2. The Headlights
Named by: Unknown
Official identify: Furnerius A, Stevinus A
Measurement: 7 miles (11 km), 5 miles (8 km)
Coordinates: 33.0° S, 54.7° E
Function named after: Look of oncoming automotive headlights
Satellite tv for pc craters often don’t draw the informal observer’s consideration, however the good, similar-sized Furnerius A and Stevinus A are an exception. Each younger Copernican-epoch craters show disproportionately shiny ray techniques. The good craters bracket the 45-mile-wide (72 km) Stevinus on the Moon’s southeast quadrant, creating the phantasm of approaching automotive headlights.
3. The Lunar Good-Luck Allure
Named by: Robert Reeves
Official identify: Meton, Meton C, D, E
Measurement: 124 miles (200 km)
Coordinates: 72.6° N, 20.0° E
Function named after: Look of a four-leaf clover
The merged types of craters Meton C, D, and E overlaying Meton Crater on the northern polar panorama create a four-leaf clover form representing a lunar good-luck allure. The interiors and rims of all 4 pre-Nectarian-epoch craters had been buried by the wave of ejecta thrown from the Imbrium Basin affect 3.85 billion years in the past, forming a standard flooring mendacity 5,000 ft (1,500 meters) beneath the encompassing territory.
4. The Liebig Wall
Named by: Unknown
Official identify: Rupes Liebig
Measurement: 90 miles (145 km)
Coordinates: 45.9° W, 25.1° S
Function named after: Scarp with the identical identify
Prolonged Rupes Liebig arcs alongside the western shore of Mare Humorum and descends 2,300 ft (700 m) to the mare flooring. The 6-mile-wide (9 km), 5,600-foot-deep (1,700 m) crater Liebig F lies atop the scarp and conjures up the unofficial designation of the Liebig Wall.
5. Hill’s Waterfall
Named by: Robert Reeves
Official identify: None
Measurement: 6 miles (10 km)
Coordinates: 22.0° N, 55.5° E
Function named after: Resembles a waterfall cascading down a mountainside
A shiny splash of light-colored materials ejected from a 0.8-mile-wide (1.3 km) craterlet on a mountainside on the northern rim of Mare Crisium seems to be nearly as if it had been a waterfall cascading right down to the plain beneath. This shiny, white spot will be discovered by following the northward arc of the craters Picard, Pierce, and Swift on the western facet of Crisium. The spot has been reported to be a transient lunar occasion, as its reflectivity is variable and depending on the Solar illumination angle, as seen in a comparability of those two photos. The bodily function, nevertheless, is everlasting. Whereas the spot has no official identify, Rik Hill, now retired from the College of Arizona, revealed an evaluation of it — thus, it’s known as Hill’s Waterfall.
6. The Spider
Named by: Robert Reeves
Official identify: Lamont
Measurement: 52 miles (83 km)
Coordinates: 5.1° N, 23.3° E
Function named after: Spiderlike look
First charted as a ghost crater on western Mare Tranquillitatis, Lamont is now considered a small ghost basin as a result of 84-mile-wide (135 km) outer ring surrounding it. Lamont incorporates a spiderlike construction consisting of a system of prolonged radial wrinkle ridges that rise between 330 and 1,000 ft (100 and 300 m) above their environment. These type the legs of the spider.
7. The Lunar S
Named by: Robert Reeves
Measurement: 44 miles (70 km)
Coordinates: 50.2° N, 20.1° E
Function named after: Look of the letter S underneath sundown illumination
The apparition of the letter S seems for a number of hours at sunset on the jap flank of Aristoteles Crater. The S is a mixture of the northern rim of 19-mile-wide (30 km) Mitchell Crater, protruding from underneath Aristoteles’ jap rim, and the swirl of topography north of Mitchell.
8. Valentine Dome
Named by: Unknown
Official identify: Linné A 1
Measurement: 22 miles (35 km)
Coordinates: 30.4° N, 10.1° E
Function named after: Look of a Valentine’s coronary heart
The volcanic dome Linné A 1, good of heart on this picture, rises 1,000 ft (300 m) above western Mare Serenitatis and is topped by half a dozen smaller volcanic domes, some capped with a small caldera. The rounded pancake-shaped dome resembles a basic Valentine’s coronary heart.
9. Coronary heart of the Moon
Named by: Robert Reeves
Official identify: None
Measurement: 93 miles (150 km)
Coordinates: 10.5° N, 6.8° E
Function named after: Coronary heart-shaped look
Some 370 miles (600 km) south of Valentine Dome lies one other heart-shaped function: the darkish volcanic-ash-dusted mountains north of Rima Hyginus on Mare Vaporum, which attain 3,300 ft (1,000 m) in elevation. The mountains don’t have any official identify, however the general look of the rugged area prompts the unofficial designation of the Coronary heart of the Moon.
10. The Lunar X
Named by: Unknown
Official identify: None
Measurement: 68 miles (110 km)
Coordinates: 25.4° S, 1.0° E
Function named after: Look of the letter X
Because the First Quarter dawn terminator crosses the merged rims of the adjoining craters Purbach, La Caille, and Blanchinus, they protrude in an X-shaped sample that catches the primary rays of dawn and stays seen for about 4 hours.
11. The Marius Hills and Tadpole
Named by: Unknown
Official identify: Hills: none; Tadpole: Reiner Gamma
Measurement: Hills: 171 miles (275 km); Tadpole: 124 miles (200 km)
Coordinates: Hills: 12.6° N, 53.9° W; Tadpole: 7.6° N, 58.6° W
Function named after: Hills: close by crater Marius; Tadpole: resemblance to a frog tadpole
The Marius Hills are the unofficial identify for the 262 particular person mounds on a 27,000-square-mile (70,000 sq. km) area of Oceanus Procellarum west of the crater Marius. Though casually known as hills, the options are volcanic domes and cinder cones. Reiner Gamma, situated west of the Marius Hills and affectionately referred to as the Tadpole, will get its nickname from its resemblance to this stage in a frog’s life cycle. This function possesses no vertical aid, doesn’t solid a shadow, and is formally categorized as an albedo function.
12. Straight Wall and Historic Thebit
Named by: Straight Wall: Birt and Lee (1865); Historic Thebit: Chuck Wooden
Official identify: Straight Wall: Rupes Recta; Historic Thebit: none
Measurement: Straight Wall: 72 miles (116 km); Historic Thebit: 105 miles (170 km)
Coordinates: 21.7° S, 7.7° W
Function named after: Straight Wall: Linear look; Historic Thebit: Proximity to Thebit Crater
Rupes Recta is a prolonged linear function identified by the beloved identify of Straight Wall (a tough translation of its Latin identify). It is usually referred to as Huygens’ Sword in honor of Seventeenth-century astronomer Christiaan Huygens, who studied the function. The curved uncovered crater rim on the southern finish of Rupes Recta is often known as the Stag’s Horn. Straight Wall lies in an unnamed ghost crater marked by a horseshoe-shaped bay east of the Wall and the round wrinkle ridges west of it. This crater was unofficially designated Historic Thebit by Chuck Wooden after the close by, youthful Thebit Crater.
13. The Guardians
Named by: Chuck Wooden
Official identify: None
Measurement: 13 miles (21 km)
Coordinates: 47.8° N, 0.3° W
Function named after: Two mountains “guarding” a slim gorge
The mouth on the western finish of the Alpine Valley (Vallis Alpes) slashing via the lunar Alps (Montes Alpes) funnels from 13 miles (21 km) throughout right down to a gorge simply 660 ft (200 m) huge on the valley’s entrance. The slim channel is bounded by a northern massif that rises 6,500 ft (2,000 m), whereas the southern massif rises 8,200 ft (2,500 m) above the plains of Mare Imbrium. Chuck Wooden unofficially named the dual mountains the Guardians.
14. The Railroad Tracks
Named by: Unknown
Official identify: Tycho rays
Measurement: 447 miles (720 km)
Coordinates: 32.8° S, 19.5° W
Function named after: Parallel placement, akin to railroad tracks
Tycho Crater’s two distinguished northwestern ray streamers don’t diverge from a degree inside Tycho, and every ray is tangential to the crater’s rim. This uncommon parallel nature prompted the unofficial designation of the Railroad Tracks.
15. Ghosts of Procellarum
Named by: Robert Reeves
Official identify: Flamsteed P, Wichmann R
Measurement: 62 miles (100 km), 40 miles (64 km)
Coordinates: 4.5° S, 40.7° W
Function named after: Ghost crater places
The Moon’s giant basins had been as soon as dotted with craters, earlier than volcanic flooding flooded lots of them and created the maria. Some stay seen as ghost craters with their crowns protruding above the mare basalt. These on southern Oceanus Procellarum are collectively referred to as the Ghosts of Procellarum.
16. The Fireman’s Hat
Named by: Unknown
Official identify: None
Measurement: 44 miles (70 km)
Coordinates: 16.8° S, 31.5° W
Function named after: The looks of a fireman’s helmet
The Fireman’s Hat, generally known as the Helmet, is the favored identify for the half-Moon-shaped light-colored volcanic mound at higher left within the picture. On this north-up view, the Fireman’s Hat is the other way up. The 43-by-31-mile (70 by 50 km) function has no official identify, however can also be unofficially known as the Agatharchides Dome, in reference to its proximity to Agatharchides Crater.
17. Thor’s Hammer
Named by: Robert Reeves
Official identify: Piton Gamma
Measurement: 11 miles (18 km)
Coordinates: 38.2° N, 1.8° W
Function named after: Similarity to Thor’s warhammer
The T-shaped ridges of Piton Gamma on northern Mare Imbrium mimic the form of the magical hammer Mjolnir wielded by the legendary Norse god Thor. The 6-mile-wide (9 km) hammer head rises 1,300 ft (400 m) above the encompassing plains, whereas the 11-mile-long (18 km) deal with rises 1,600 ft (500 m).
18. The Cobra Head
Named by: Unknown
Official identify: None
Measurement: 5 miles (8 km)
Coordinates: 24.5° N, 49.2° W
Function named after: Look of a snake head
The unnamed volcanic pit on the supply of the lava flows that channeled via Schröter’s Valley on the Aristarchus Plateau is not any wider than the rille forming the valley. Whereas small in comparison with distinguished craters, it is likely one of the largest volcanic pits on the Moon. The snakelike look of Schröter’s Valley conjures up the identify the Cobra Head.
19. The Ninja Star
Named by: Unknown
Official identify: Kepler rays
Measurement: 311 miles (500 km)
Coordinates: 8.1° N, 38.1° W
Function named after: Ray sample resembling a ninja star
Kepler Crater’s spectacular ray system is famous for its unusually thick western spokes and practically strong fan of jap rays. Mountain ridges west of Kepler act like a dam, breaking the westward circulate of the rays into particular person spokes. This round splash of rays conjures up the nickname the Ninja Star.
20. The Golden Deal with
Named by: Unknown
Official identify: Jura Mountains
Measurement: 155 miles (250 km)
Coordinates: 47.5° N, 36.7° W
Function named after: Look of a curved deal with at regional dawn
Dawn breaking throughout the crest of the Jura Mountains (Montes Jura) cradling Sinus Iridum on the northwestern fringe of Mare Imbrium illuminates the mountain vary earlier than the ground of Sinus Iridum turns into seen. The brilliant mountain rim floating above the darkness creates the phantasm of a curved deal with towards the black background of space.
