Taurus Mountains ( lat. Montes Taurus ) is a chaotically crossed mountain region on the visible side of the Moon , east of the Sea of Clarity [1] . Located in an area limited by coordinates 24.3 ° - 30.1 ° N, 37.2 ° - 43.3 ° E (center coordinates - ) [2] . The area extends from approximately Posidonius Crater in the northwest to Macrobius Crater in the southeast. In the south, the mountains border the Bay of Love in the Sea of Tranquility , in the north - with the Lake of Dreams , in the east - with the Lake of Justice . Other notable relief features in the Taurus Mountains include Craters Shakornak , Lemonier , Roemer , Newcom , Bond J.
| Taurus Mountains | |
|---|---|
| lat Montes taurus | |
 Taurus Mountains - near the center. Bottom right - Sea of Crises , left - Sea of Clarity ; top left - Lake of Dreams , below the center - Bay of Love and Lake of Justice . A combination of images of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter probe. Image width - 700 km. | |
| Specifications | |
| Education period | Nectar |
| Length | 170 km |
| Highest point | |
| Absolute height | 3000 m |
| Location | |
Content
Description
The Taurus Mountains are much less noticeable than other lunar mountains and are more likely a chaotic mountainous region than a pronounced mountain system [3] . Mountains reach the highest altitude between the craters of Kirchhoff and Newcom (4.9 km above the surface of the Sea of Clarity and 2.1 km above the average surface of the Moon) [4] . They owe their origin to the ejection of rocks during impact , forming the Sea of Clarity , which blocked the rocks ejected earlier during the formation of the Sea of Crisis [3] .
In the area of the Taurus-Litrov valley (there is also a variant of its name with one "t" - Taurus-Litrov), a bright orange color was discovered. Today it is the only place on the moon where such soil was discovered.
This ridge is called the Taurus Mountains in southern Turkey . It appeared on the map of the moon thanks to Jan Hevelius , who gave the lunar mountains the names of the earth. However, his name (in the form of Mons Taurus - “Taurus Mountain”) refers to a completely different object (to a bright ray extending from the Tycho crater to the east). The object of this article in Hevelius, which has put the regions of the Mediterranean environs in correspondence with the regions of the Moon, corresponded to Crimea and was designated Taurica Chersonnesus [5] [6] . Subsequent cartographers of the moon began to call it Montes Taurus ("Taurus Mountains"), and in 1935 the International Astronomical Union approved this name [2] .
Spacecraft landing locations
In the area of the Taurus Mountains, in the Taurus Littrov Valley, the Apollo 17 lunar module , the last manned spacecraft to land on the Moon, has landed today.
See also
- List of mountains on the moon
- Planetary nomenclature
- Selenography
- Mineralogy of the Moon
- Geology of the moon
Notes
- ↑ Taurus Mountains on the map LAC43
- ↑ 1 2 Montes Taurus . Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature . International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN) (October 18, 2010). Date of treatment November 27, 2014. Archived December 14, 2012.
- ↑ 1 2 Chuck Wood. Hardly Mountains . Lunar picture of the day (October 30, 2006). Date of treatment February 15, 2015. Archived on October 9, 2014.
- ↑ According to the altimetry data of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter satellite, obtained through the JMARS program
- ↑ Hevelius J. Selenographia sive Lunae descriptio . - Gedani : Hünefeld, 1647. - P. 226–227, 235. - DOI : 10.3931 / e-rara-238 . ( Mons Taurus appears in the list of names on p. 235 )
- ↑ Whitaker EA Mapping and Naming the Moon: A History of Lunar Cartography and Nomenclature . - Cambridge University Press, 2003 .-- P. 208, 209. - 264 p. - ISBN 9780521544146 .