Mare Moscoviense

Geology

Like Mare Marginis, this mare appears to be fairly thin. However, it is clearly centered within a large impact basin. It is also much lower than either the outer basin floor or the farside highlands.

The great depth of this mare beneath the nearby highlands probably explains why mare units are so rare on the lunar farside. Very few basins on the farside were deep enough to allow mare volcanism. Thus, while large impact basins are found on both the nearside and farside, large maria are mostly found on the nearside. Mare lavas apparently could reach the surface more often and more easily there. The basin material is of the Nectarian epoch, while the mare material is of the Upper Imbrian epoch. Following the SELENE mission, scientists proposed that volcanism in Mare Moscoviense was active for at least ~1.5 Ga following the formation of the Moscoviense basin, but the formation of the mare as the result of a meteorite cluster impact, rather than from volcanism, has also been proposed based on the energy required to melt the lava in Mare Moscoviense.

At the center of the basin (or the southwest portion of the mare) is a mascon, or gravitational high. The mascon was first identified by Doppler tracking of the Lunar Prospector spacecraft.

Name

The name Mare Moscoviense was approved by the IAU in 1961. It is Latin for "sea of Muscovy".

Lunar naming conventions specify that lunar maria are named in Latin after 'weather and other abstract concepts', with a few exceptions. Mare Moscoviense was discovered in 1959, when the first images of the far side were returned by the Soviet spacecraft Luna 3. The name was proposed by the Soviet Union, but was only accepted by the International Astronomical Union when Audouin Dollfus argued that Moscow is a state of mind.

Gallery

File:Moscoviense basin topo.jpg|Topographic map File:Moscoviense basin GRAIL gravity.jpg|Gravity map based on GRAIL File:Mare Moscoviense AS13-60-8648.jpg|Mare Moscoviense from Apollo 13 File:Mare Moscoviense AS16-M-0733 ASU.jpg|Oblique view from Apollo 16, with the mare at the horizon. The outer basin rings are subtle but visible in this view.

Nearby features

The crater Titov is in the northeastern region of the mare, and Tereshkova lies along the northern edge. The floor-fractured crater Komarov lies on the southeast edge of the mare. The Korolev basin is to the southeast of the mare, and the Freundlich-Sharonov Basin is to the east. Leonov (crater), named for cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, lies just to the south of Mare Moscoviense.

References

References

1. [https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/pp1348 The geologic history of the Moon]. [[USGS]] Professional Paper 1348. By [[Don Wilhelms. Don E. Wilhelms]], John F. McCauley, and Newell J. Trask. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington: 1987. Table 9-3.
2. Morota, T., et al. (2009), Mare volcanism in the lunar farside Moscoviense region: Implication for lateral variation in magma production of the Moon, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L21202, [http://www.agu.org/journals/ABS/2009/2009GL040472.shtml] {{doi. 10.1029/2009GL040472
3. Zamora, A. (2013), Mare Moscoviense – A Meteorite Cluster Impact on the Moon, ScientificPsychic.com, [http://www.scientificpsychic.com/etc/timeline/mare-moscoviense.html], accessed 2022-01-08
4. (1998). "Improved Gravity Field of the Moon from Lunar Prospector". Science.
5. (1961). "XIth General Assembly". [[International Astronomical Union]].
6. "Mare Moscoviense". [[US Geological Survey]].
7. "Categories (Themes) for Naming Features on Planets and Satellites". [[US Geological Survey]].
8. (22 August 2012). "The name game". [[Nature (journal).
9. [https://asc-planetarynames-data.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Lunar/lac_48_wac.pdf LAC-48]
10. [https://asc-planetarynames-data.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Lunar/lac_49_wac.pdf LAC-49]