Posted on Dec 11, 2020

APOD: 2020 December 11 - Messier Craters in Stereo

Maj William W. 'Bill' Price

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Good Red Friday morning, Rallypoint. Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is titled "Messier Craters in Stereo." Standouts in the Sea of Fertility, these two craters are remnants of a low-angle (< 15 degrees) impact on the Moon by what may have been a single impactor, but broke apart after the initial impact to form a total of three craters. Three, you say? Yes...the first (left) and then two more (right). The right-most crater appears to be a result of two strikes, where the first is partially filled/degraded by ejecta from the second. Results from ballistics experiments at NASA's Ames Research Center support this explanation. A comet (or asteroid) traveling at an estimated 55,000 miles per hour struck the Moon, digging out the trough-like left crater first, broke apart, and created the additional craters. Ejecta continues to the right of this image for an additional 90-100 kilometers.

APOD: 2020 December 11 - Messier Craters in Stereo

Posted from apod.nasa.gov

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LTC Stephen F.

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Duo Savarit-Messier. Blues Jazz. "Greenstone Waters" (Andrew White)

http://savarit-messier.com/Arranged by Duo Savarit-Messier

Thank you my friend Maj William W. 'Bill' Price for posting the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) for Friday, December 11, 2020 entitled "Messier Craters in Stereo."

Image: Messier Craters in Stereo - Image Credit - Apollo 11, NASA; Stereo Image Copyright Patrick Vantuyne

The wonders of photographic and astrophotography technological advances which make these images of section f God's creation in the heavens so clear :-)

APOD background
"Explanation: Many bright nebulae and star clusters in planet Earth's sky are associated with the name of astronomer Charles Messier from his famous 18th century catalog. His name is also given to these two large and remarkable craters on the Moon. Standouts in the dark, smooth lunar Sea of Fertility or Mare Fecunditatis, Messier (left) and Messier A have dimensions of 15 by 8 and 16 by 11 kilometers respectively. Their elongated shapes are explained by the extremely shallow-angle trajectory followed by an impactor, moving left to right, that gouged out the craters. The shallow impact also resulted in two bright rays of material extending along the surface to the right, beyond the picture. Intended to be viewed with red/blue glasses (red for the left eye), this striking stereo picture of the crater pair was recently created from high resolution scans of two images (AS11-42-6304, AS11-42-6305) taken during the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon."

Duo Savarit-Messier. Blues Jazz. "Greenstone Waters" (Andrew White)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6cIcDG7lU0

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