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Mons Pico

Field	Value
name	Mons Pico
photo	File:Mons Pico 4122 h2.jpg
photo_caption	Mons Pico (upper left) and Pico β (lower right). Lunar Orbiter 4 image.
elevation	2,450 m
listing	Lunar mountains
location	the Moon
coordinates

Selenochromatic image(Si) of the Mons Pico area (bottom) with some selenochromatic landmarks

Mons Pico is a solitary lunar mountain that lies in the northern part of the Mare Imbrium basin, to the south of the dark-floored crater Plato and on the southern rim of a ghost crater. This peak forms part of the surviving inner ring of the Imbrium basin, continuing to the northwest and with the Montes Teneriffe and Montes Recti ranges, and probably to the southeast with the Montes Spitzbergen. This mountain feature is thought to have been named by Johann Hieronymus Schröter for Pico del Teide on Tenerife.

Description

Mons Pico forms an elongated feature with a length of 25 kilometers (oriented northwest–southeast) and a width of 15 km. The peak rises to a height of 2.4 km, comparable to the maximum altitude of the Montes Teneriffe. The mountain itself is a very reflective and bright object.

Due to its isolated location on the lunar mare, this peak can form prominent shadows when illuminated by oblique sunlight. It is also known as a location of Transient Lunar Anomalies.

A smaller peak to the southeast of Mons Pico is sometimes called Mons Pico β (Beta). This region of the mare contains a number of wrinkle ridges.

Satellite craters

By convention these features are identified on lunar maps by placing the letter on the side of the crater midpoint that is closest to Mons Pico.

Pico	Latitude	Longitude	Diameter
B	46.5° N	15.3° W	12 km
C	47.2° N	6.6° W	5 km
D	43.4° N	11.3° W	7 km
E	43.0° N	10.3° W	9 km
F	42.2° N	10.2° W	4 km
G	46.6° N	10.4° W	4 km
K	44.6° N	7.5° W	3 km

Pico in fiction

Strange objects appear near Pico in the 1957 science fiction novel Blast Off at Woomera by Hugh Walters; their fate is further expanded upon in the sequels The Domes of Pico and Operation Columbus.

Pico is the site of a climactic space battle in Arthur C. Clarke's novel Earthlight. It is also mentioned in passing in his novel 3001: The Final Odyssey as a storage repository of both biological and computer viruses, and in his short story "The Sentinel" (in which Wilson, the protagonist, mentions having climbed it).

Pico is mentioned in the Jules Verne novel Around the Moon as the three main characters observe it from their spacecraft. Two of the travelers, Nichol and Ardan, suggest christening the nearby unnamed peak Barbicane, in honor of the third.

References

"2061 Odyssey Three Series, Book 3, Arthur C. Clarke (Audiobook)".
Rükl, Antonín. (1996). "Atlas of the Moon". Kalmbach Publishing Co..
Rükl, 49.
(2004). "The Clementine Atlas of the Moon". [[Cambridge University Press]].
North, Gerald. (2007). "Observing the Moon". Cambridge University Press.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

mountains-on-the-moon mare-imbrium

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