Moon question.

exposure

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4 Jul 2012 - 8:27 AM

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I took some images of the moon last night...& wonder whether could anyone tell me what the mark on the moon (arrowed) is...I wondered if it might be an explosion..or may be a crater!!! or may be nothing exciting.... I havn't noticed this before on other moon images I have taken.
Thank you for your help & time
Pauline.

Steve_S (e2 Member)

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4 Jul 2012 - 8:48 AM

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Its the crater Tycho, about 84 km across and 4.6 km deep. It is one of the youngest large craters on the near side of the Moon, with spectacular rays that are easily visible in any telescopes. These rays were caused by chunks of rock that were ejected when something hits the Moon. And the freshness of these rays tells us that Tycho is young since there has been little time to erode them. If Tycho were old, these rays may have been eroded or erased by later impacts.

SlowSong (e2 Member)

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4 Jul 2012 - 8:50 AM

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It's a crater called Tycho. Lots of info on line.

exposure

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4 Jul 2012 - 8:54 AM

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Hi Chris
Thank you..
Pauline.

cambirder

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4 Jul 2012 - 11:03 AM

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Quote: These rays were caused by chunks of rock that were ejected when something hits the Moon. And the freshness of these rays tells us that Tycho is young since there has been little time to erode them

Although young in this case is around 108 million years. It looks this fresh because erosion is non existent on the Moon. Older craters have been modified by later impacts and some have been flooded by basaltic lava but as the Moon has not been volcanically active for around 3 billion years these are very old craters indeed.