Lunar mare
Mare (/ˈmɑːreɪ/;[1] plural: maria /ˈmɑːriə/) is the name for a great plain on the Moon. Several such maria exist. They were formed by ancient impacts and volcanic eruptions. Because of their high amount of iron, they reflect less light than the highlands of the Moon, causing them to appear dark to the naked eye. They are called sea Because ancient astronomers looked at the Moon and thought they saw seas and oceans, they named those dark areas maria, the Latin word for seas. The maria cover about 16% of the surface of the Moon and most of them are on the side of the moon which is visible from Earth.
A lunar mare, Mare Tranquillitatis was the landing site for the first manned landing on the Moon on July 20, 1969, at 20:18 UTC. Apollo 11 landed at 0°40′27″N 23°28′23″E / 00.67408°N 23.47297°E .[2][3]
Lunar Mare Media
Various traditions gave folkloric names to the lunar maria, including famous patterns like the "Moon rabbit" (second pattern from top to bottom) and the "Man in the Moon" (fifth pattern).
Map of the Moon from Giovanni Battista Riccioli's Almagestus (1651). Riccioli established modern names of lunar maria.
Lunar basalt layering exposed
Irregular mare patch – evidence of young lunar volcanism (12 October 2014)
References
- ↑ The American Heritage Science Dictionary, 2005.
Classical pronunciations are pl. /ˈmɛəriə/ and sg. /ˈmɛəriː/. In the singular, the compromise pronunciation /ˈmɑːriː/ is commonly heard. mare. Oxford DictionariesOxford University Press. - ↑ Apollo 11 Landing SiteSmithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
- ↑ https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/lunar_sites.html Archived 2021-02-24 at the Wayback Machine Accessed October 12th, 2017