A term used to refer to vast dark regions on the Moon. Its appearance dates back to a time when the darker features on the Moon were believed to contain liquid water, which is not known to be true. Because the term has been in use for a long time, it has been retained in the official names of these lunar features as well. The largest sea is not called a "sea", but an "ocean" - the Ocean of Storms (Oceanus Procellarum).

The lunar seas are actually "seas" of hardened lava that arose shortly after the formation of the Moon, when it was volcanically active (more than 4000 million years ago). Molten lava flowed into huge depressions formed by the impact of large meteorites. At subsequent stages of the Moon's history, the frequency of meteorite collisions decreased: the density of craters on the lunar seas is noticeably less than on brighter elevated areas - "continents" (terrae).

General information. The lunar seas first appeared on a map of the Moon compiled in 1651 by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Riccioli and the Italian physicist Francesco Grimaldi. As it turned out later, there was no water in them, but the term "sea" and the names of the seas given on the map have survived to this day. The modern list of lunar seas was approved by the International Astronomical Union.

The lunar seas are the largest details of the lunar relief. The seas are lowlands (for example, the Sea of ​​​​Rains is located 3 km below the surrounding area) with a flat bottom, with the presence of folds and peaks of small mountain peaks filled with hardened lava. The solidified lava is characterized by a darker color than the rest of the surface of the Moon, and this is precisely what explains the grayish-brownish hue characteristic of the lunar seas. The seas are covered with volcanic rocks, mainly basalts, whose age is estimated at 3-4.5 billion years. The outlines of the boundaries of the lunar seas in the predominant number of cases are rounded. The size ranges from 200 to 1100 kilometers across.

At the bottom of the Grimaldi crater near the edge of the Ocean of Storms, ground-based research methods found ilmenites- rocks containing oxygen. There are few craters in the seas. The largest lowland is called the Ocean of Storms. Its length is 2000 km. The marginal zones of the seas, which resemble bays, as well as dark depressions in the form of lakes, were given names corresponding to their appearance. Around the seas are ring-shaped mountain ranges. The Sea of ​​Rains is surrounded by the Alps, the Caucasus, the Apennines, the Carpathians, the Jura. Sea of ​​Nectar - Altai and Pyrenees mountains. The Eastern Sea is surrounded by the Cordillera and the Roca Mountains. In the seas, sometimes there are ledges - faults; the most famous ledge - Straight Wall is located in the Sea of ​​Clouds.

There are few seas on the far side of the Moon and they are small in size. There is an assumption that the sea formations on the Moon were formed as a result of only a few collisions. The craters formed as a result of the impacts filled with lava and gave rise to mascons. Lava rocks are heavier than continental ones, which could cause an asymmetry in the distribution of the lunar mass, as a result of which the Earth's gravity forever fixed the "marine" hemisphere of the Moon in the direction of our planet. The far side of the Moon is characterized by "pools" - very large ring structures with a diameter of more than 300 km. The East Sea, the Sea of ​​Moscow and others have two annular shafts - external and internal, with a diameter ratio of 2/1. Sometimes the inner rings are badly destroyed.

Some facts about the lunar seas:

The Known Sea got its name after the American Ranger-7 probe landed here in 1964;
The Sea of ​​Tranquility is famous for the fact that it was here that a person first set foot on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969. It was the American astronaut Neil Armstrong;
In the Sea of ​​Plenty, the Soviet probe "Luna-16" (1970) took a sample of lunar soil and delivered it to Earth;
To the south of the Rainbow Bay, the first planetary rover "Lunokhod-1" (1970-1971) was conducting research;
On the border of the Sea of ​​Clarity, the Lunokhod-2 planetary rover (1973) conducted research.

Seas and Bays on the Moon

Ocean of Storms - Oceanus Procellarum (1)

Sea of ​​Humidity - Mare Humorum (6)
East Sea - Mare Orientale
Sea of ​​Waves - Mare Undarum (14)
Humboldt Sea - Mare Humboldtianum (19)
Sea of ​​Rains - Mare Imbrium (2)
Sea Serpent - Mare Anguis (18)
Sea of ​​Plenty - Mare Fecunditatis (12)
Mare Marginis (16)
Sea Crisium - Mare Crisium (17)
Sea of ​​Nectar - Mare Nectaris (11)
Sea of ​​Clouds - Mare Nubium (7)
Sea of ​​Islands - Mare Insularum (4)
Sea of ​​Vapors - Mare Vaporum (8)
Sea of ​​Foam - Mare Spumans (13)
Sea of ​​the Known - Mare Cognitum(5)
Smith's Sea - Mare Smythii (15)
Sea of ​​Tranquility - Mare Tranquillitatis (10)
Sea of ​​Cold - Mare Frigoris (3)
South Sea - Mare Australe
Sea of ​​Clarity - Mare Serenitatis (9)

Bay of Fidelity - Sinus Fidei (23)
Heat Bay - Sinus Aestum (24)
Lunnik Bay - Sinus Lunicus (22)
Bay of Love - Sinus Amoris (29)
Rainbow Bay - Sinus Iridum (21)
Bay of Dew - Sinus Roris (20)
Bay of Glory - Sinus Honoris (26)
Gulf of Concord - Sinus Concordiae (28)
Bay of Severity - Sinus Asperitatis (27)
Bay of Success - Sinus Successus (30)
Gulf Central - Sinus Medii (25)

Awe Lake - Lacus Timoris (err. - Lacus Tumoris)
Spring Lake - Lacus Veris
Lake of Eternity - Lacus Temporis
Winter Lake - Lacus Hiemalis
Lake of Justice - Lacus Bonitatis
Lake of Letha - Lacus Aestatis
Hope Lake - Lacus Spei
Lake of Perseverance - Lacus Perseverantiae
Lake of Tenderness - Lacus Lenitatis
Hatred Lake - Lacus Odii
Lake of Autumn - Lacus Autumni
Lake of Sorrows - Lacus Doloris
Lake of Excellence - Lacus Excellentiae
Lake of Joy - Lacus Gaudii
Lake of Death - Lacus Mortis
Lake of Dreams - Lacus somniorum
Happy Lake - Lacus Felicitatis

Swamp of Rotting - Palus Putredinis
Swamp of Sleep - Palus Somni
Swamp of Epidemics - Palus Epidemiarum

The names of the seas and lakes on the far side of the moon:

Sea of ​​Dreams - Mare Ingenii
Sea of ​​Moscow - Mare Moscoviense
Oblivion Lake - Lacus Oblivionis
Lake of Solitude - Lacus Solitudinis
Pleasure Lake - Lacus Luxuriae

Names of excluded seas and swamps:

Sea of ​​Desire - Mare Desiderii
Small Sea - Mare Parvum
Sea of ​​Bad Weather - Mare Hiemis
Sea of ​​the Unknown - Mare Incognito
Sea New - Mare Novum
Struve Sea - Mare Struve
Swamp of Mists - Palus Nebularum
Gay-Lussac Bay - Sinus Gay-Lussac
Gulf of Pietrosul - Sinus Pietrosul

For many millennia, people have been watching the amazing celestial body, called the Earth's satellite - the Moon. The first astronomers noticed dark areas of various sizes on its surface, considering them to be seas and oceans. What are these spots, really?

Characteristics of the Moon as a satellite of the Earth

There are several hypotheses for the origin of the moon:

• The destruction of the planet Phaethon, which collided with a comet while orbiting the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Part of its fragments rushed to the Sun, and one to the Earth, forming a system with a satellite.
• During the destruction of Phaeton, the remaining core changed its orbit, "turning" into Venus, and the Moon is a former satellite of Phaeton, which the Earth captured into its orbit.
• The moon is the preserved core of Phaethon after its destruction.

But over time, when they learned about the temperature on the Moon, reaching +120°C during the day, and -160°C at night, and about the absence of an atmosphere, they realized that there could be no talk of water on the Moon. By tradition, the name "Lunar seas and oceans" has remained.

A more detailed study of the Moon began with the first landing of the Soviet Luna-2 apparatus on its surface in 1959. The subsequent Luna-3 apparatus for the first time made it possible to capture its reverse side, which remains invisible from the Earth, in the pictures. In 1966, with the help of the lunar rover, the structure of the soil was established.

On July 21, 1969, a significant event took place in the world of astronautics - the landing of a man on the moon. These heroes were the Americans Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin. Although in recent years many skeptics have been talking about the falsification of this event.

The Moon is located at a great distance from the Earth by human standards - 384,467 km, which is approximately 30 diameters of the globe. In relation to our planet, the Moon has a diameter slightly larger than a quarter of the Earth, makes a complete revolution around it in an elliptical orbit in 27.32166 days.

The moon is made up of a crust, mantle and core. Its surface is covered with a mixture of dust and rocky debris formed from constant collisions with meteorites. The atmosphere of the Moon is very rarefied, which leads to a sharp fluctuation in temperatures on its surface - from -160°C to +120°C. At the same time, at a depth of 1 meter, the temperature of the rock is constant and amounts to -35°C. Due to the rarefied atmosphere, the sky on the Moon is constantly black, and not blue, as on Earth in clear weather.

Moon surface map

In the 17th century, scientists decided that the dark spots were the lunar seas and oceans, believing that there was water on the Moon, just like on Earth. Light areas were considered land. The map of the Moon's seas and craters was first drawn by the Italian scientist Giovanni Riccioli in 1651. The astronomer even gave them his own names, which are still used today. We will learn about them a little later. After the discovery by Galileo of the mountains on the moon, they began to be given names in the likeness of the Earth.

Craters are special ring mountains called cirques, they also got their names in honor of the great scientists of antiquity. After the discovery and photography by Soviet astronomers using spacecraft of the far side of the Moon, craters with the names of Russian scientists and researchers appeared on the map.

All this is detailed on the lunar map of both its hemispheres, used in astronomy, because a person does not lose hope not only to land on the moon again, but also to build bases, establish a search for minerals and create a colony for a full-fledged life.

Mountain systems and craters on the moon

Craters on the Moon are the most common landform. These multiple traces of the work of meteorites and asteroids over millions of years can be seen on a clear night on a full moon without the help of optical instruments. Upon closer examination, these works of space art amaze with their originality and grandeur.

History and origin of "moon scars"

All of them basically formed after the formation of the solar system, when it was bombarded by celestial bodies left after the destruction of the planets, which rushed through it in huge numbers at crazy speed. Almost 4 billion years ago, this era ended. The earth got rid of these effects due to atmospheric influences, but the moon, devoid of an atmosphere, did not.

Astronomers' opinions about the origins of craters have been constantly changing over the centuries. They considered such theories as volcanic origin and the hypothesis about the formation of craters on the Moon with the help of "space ice". A more detailed study of the lunar surface, which became available in the 20th century, nevertheless, in its overwhelming majority, proves the impact theory from the impact of a collision with meteorites.

Description of lunar craters

The ring-shaped appearance is the most important feature of the lunar mountains. You won't find them on Earth. Outwardly, the lunar crater is a depression, around which high round shafts rise, with which the entire surface of the Moon is dotted.

Lunar craters bear some resemblance to terrestrial volcanic craters. Unlike the earthly ones, the peaks of the lunar mountains are not so sharp, they are more round in shape with an oblong shape. If you look at the crater from the sunny side, you can see that the shadow from the mountains inside the crater is greater than the shadow outside. From this we can conclude that the bottom of the crater is lower than the surface of the satellite.

The sizes of craters on the Moon can vary in diameter and depth. The diameter can be both scanty up to several meters, and huge, reaching more than one hundred kilometers.

The larger the crater, the correspondingly deeper. The depth can reach 100 m. The outer shaft of large "lunar bowls" for more than 100 km rises up to 5 km above the surface.

Of the relief features that distinguish lunar craters, the following can be distinguished:

1. Inner slope;
2. External slope;
3. The depth of the crater bowl itself;
4. System and length of rays diverging from the outer shaft;
5. The central peak at the bottom of the crater, which is found in large ones, is more than 25 km in diameter.

• Al-Battani C - a spherical crater with a sharp shaft, up to 10 km in diameter;
• Bio - the same Al-Battani C, but with a flat bottom, from 10 to 15 km;
• Sozigen - an impact crater ranging in size from 15 to 25 km;
• Trisnecker is a lunar crater up to 50 km in diameter, with a sharp peak in the center;
• Tycho - craters with a terraced slope and a flat bottom, over 50 km.

The largest craters on the moon

Names were given to craters in honor of the scientists Plato, Ptolemy, Galileo, in honor of St. Catherine. After the promulgation of the map of the reverse side by Soviet scientists, the crater named after. Tsiolkovsky, Gagarin, Korolev and others.

The largest officially listed crater is Hertzsprung. Its diameter is 591 km. It is invisible to us, as it is located on the invisible side of the moon. It is a huge crater in which smaller ones are located. Such a structure is called a multi-ring structure.

The second largest crater bears the name Grimaldi, named after the Italian physicist. Its diameter is 237 km. Crimea can be freely located inside it.

The third huge lunar crater is Ptolemy. Its width in diameter is about 180 km.

Oceans and seas on the moon

The lunar seas are also a bizarre shape of the relief of the satellite's surface in the form of huge dark spots, attracting the eyes of more than one generation of astronomers.

The concept of the sea and ocean on the moon

Since then, they began to be called seas and appeared on the maps after a detailed study of the surface of the visible part of the Moon. Even after it turned out that there is no atmosphere on the Earth’s satellite and there is no possibility of the presence of moisture, they did not fundamentally change it.

The seas on the Moon - strange dark valleys on its visible part from the Earth, are huge low-lying areas with a flat bottom, filled with magma. Billions of years ago, volcanic processes left an indelible mark on the relief of the lunar surface. Huge areas extend over distances from 200 to 1000 km across.

The seas appear dark to us because they do not reflect sunlight well. The depth from the surface of the satellite can reach 3 km, which boasts the size of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bRains on the Moon.

The largest sea is called the Ocean of Storms. This lowland stretches for 2000 km.

The visible seas on the Moon are located within the ring-shaped mountain ranges, which also have their own names. The Sea of ​​Clarity is located near the Serpent's Ridge. Its diameter is 700 km, but it is not remarkable for this. Of interest are the various colors of lava that stretch along its bottom. A large positive gravity anomaly has been detected in the Sea of ​​Clarity.

The most famous seas, bays and lakes

In addition to the only Ocean of Storms and seas, there are bays, lakes and even swamps on the Moon, which have their own official names. Let's consider the most interesting ones.

The lakes received such names as the lake of Awe, Spring, Oblivion, Tenderness, Perseverance, Hatred. Bays include Loyalty, Love, Tenderness and Good Luck. The swamps have corresponding names - Rotting, Sleep and Epidemics.

1. The Sea of ​​Tranquility on the Moon is known for being the first place where a human foot set foot. In 1969, American astronauts carried out the first landing on the moon in the history of mankind.
2. Raduga Bay is famous for the exploration of the Lunokhod-1 planetary rover in 1970 near it.
3. At the Sea of ​​​​Clarity, the Soviet Lunokhod-2 conducted its surface research.
4. In the Sea of ​​Plenty, the probe "Luna-16" in 1970 took lunar soil for testing and delivered it to Earth.
5. The Known Sea became famous for the fact that in 1964 the American Ranger-7 probe landed here, which for the first time in history took a close-up photo of the Moon's surface.

Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences E. LEVITAN.

Take a close look at this photographic map of the full moon.

Schematic map of the side of the Moon visible from Earth.

Nine planets revolve around our Sun, most of them have satellites. But the number of satellites is not the same for all planets. Mercury and Venus have neither. Mars has two tiny ones - Phobos and Deimos. The giant planets have large families - up to twenty moons. But our Earth and distant tiny Pluto each have one satellite: the Earth has the Moon, Pluto has a satellite named Charon. Very little is known about Pluto (and even more so about Charon). Only very recently, at the beginning of this year, was it possible to obtain the very first photograph of Charon. But people have been observing the moon for many thousands of years. She still grabs our attention. In early 1998, an American spacecraft, the Lunar Prospector (lunar reconnaissance mission), entered lunar orbit. It will circle around the moon for a whole year, trying to find out if there is an "underground" lake of ordinary liquid water near the south pole. It won't be long to wait, and we will probably learn something new that no one has known about the Moon before.

For now, let's just talk about some of the features of our planet's only natural satellite.

The moon has long amazed the inhabitants of the Earth with its beauty and at the same time it has always seemed somehow mysterious, enigmatic. Even in very ancient times, people paid attention to the fact that the appearance of the moon always changes in a strictly defined order. Moon phases repeat at precisely defined intervals. And therefore, one of the first calendars that a person began to use in everyday life was the lunar one.

For many centuries, the Moon has been asking earthlings difficult riddles. The greatest scientists, such as Galileo, Newton, Euler and others, enriched the science of the Universe with many discoveries, solving "lunar" problems.

There are many phenomena that occur in the sky and on Earth thanks to the Moon. And this is not only a change in the lunar phases, due to the fact that the lunar ball, which shines with reflected light, occupies a different position relative to the Sun and the Earth during the month. These are such magnificent celestial spectacles as eclipses of the Sun and Moon. The moon can turn (at moments of total solar eclipse) a clear sunny day into a real night.

Of course, it is also amazing that by its attraction the Moon raises water in the earth's oceans and seas. Sailors and coastal residents are familiar with this phenomenon: twice a day there are high tides (within six hours the sea advances) and low tides (within the next six hours the sea recedes).

The Earth also shows the Moon its strength: as if "bewitched", forever turned the Moon to itself on one side. The fact that the same side of the Moon always looks at the Earth, each of you can verify for yourself by observing the Moon in different phases, and especially during the full moon. What is not seen at this time by people on its surface! Distinguishable from the Earth, large dark spots on the Moon (those that are commonly called lunar seas) in the imagination of observers fancifully merge, forming different pictures. It seems to some that they see a funny face there, to others - a bunny, to others - a beautiful female face, to the fourth - an ugly dwarf who is dragging a heavy backpack ...

One of my little students (I'm reading the optional course "Your Universe" to the fifth graders), peering at the photo of the full moon, exclaimed: "No, the dwarf is not dragging a backpack at all. He just stands in front of us, turning his big head and spreading his arms to the sides!" . If you agree with this girl and with everyone who thinks that you can see the image of a dwarf on the Moon, you will be able to remember the names of several lunar seas quite quickly. These are the Sea of ​​Clarity (the dwarf's head), the Sea of ​​Tranquility (his torso), the Sea of ​​Nectar (one leg is the one to our left), the Sea of ​​Abundance (the other leg), the Sea of ​​Crises (part of one arm is to our right), the Sea Steam (part of the other hand). The Vapor Sea is small and not very visible to the naked eye, while the rest of the named lunar seas are visible quite clearly. From the first letters of their names, it seems that the name of the dwarf is obtained - YASNIK. This word will help you immediately remember which sea is called.

The "Moon Dwarf" looks at us from the right side of the Moon, and a significant part of the left side is occupied by a large Ocean of Storms with adjoining seas (above - the Sea of ​​Rains, below - the Sea of ​​Humidity and the Sea of ​​Clouds).

I think you already know this, but just in case, let me remind you that there is no water in the lunar ocean and seas. Maybe you even remember the lines from Gianni Rodari's poem:

By the moonlit sea

Special secret -

It doesn't look like the sea.

Waters in this sea

Not a bit,

And there are no fish either.

Into his waves

Can't dive

You can't splash in them.

You can't drown.

Swim in that sea

Convenient only for those

Who swim

Still can't do it at all!

Those of you who look at the Moon even with small theatrical binoculars will clearly see not only the lunar seas (dark areas) and continental regions (bright areas), but also some lunar craters (ring mountains on the Moon). With binoculars, the Tycho crater is especially clearly visible on a full moon with beautiful light rays radiating from it like meridians from the pole on a geographical globe. It is even more interesting to observe the Moon in a good large binoculars. Our journal recently spoke in detail about the cycle of such observations (see "Science and Life" No. 4, 1998).

Try to be sure to see everything that we talked about here today with your own eyes and sketch the location of the lunar seas and Tycho crater with its ray system. And if you complete such a task within two or three full moons, and then compare the sketches, you can make sure that the same picture is visible on the moon every time. That is, the Moon really faces us on one side.

But you probably know that scientists have managed to create maps of another far side of the Moon invisible from the Earth, an atlas and a globe of the entire Moon. This was done with the help of astronautics. The flights of automatic interplanetary stations to the Moon, lunar probes and artificial satellites of the Moon helped. The far side of the Moon was first photographed by our automatic interplanetary station Luna-3 in 1959.

Perhaps someone will have a question: does the Moon actually rotate around its axis? Since it is "bewitched", maybe it doesn't rotate? This, of course, is not true.

There is a very simple experience that will help each of you to make sure that the moon rotates around its axis, and convince your friends and relatives of this.

Place a chair in the middle of the room. Announce to the audience that the chair is the Earth, and you yourself will represent the Moon. Let the audience watch as you move around the chair with "side steps", all the while remaining turned to face the chair. Walking around the chair, you will simultaneously make one revolution around its axis. And then you will all be convinced together: the moon rotates, but not as fast as the earth; the time of one revolution of the moon around its axis (27.3 days) is exactly equal to the time of the moon's revolution around the earth. At the same time, it turns out that the Sun illuminates one or the other side of the Moon. So, it happens both day and night, only they last on the moon for two weeks! If we remember that there is no atmosphere on the Moon, it becomes clear: during the long day, the surface of the Moon heats up strongly, and at night it cools to a very low temperature.

As you know, people have visited the side of the Moon visible from the Earth several times, but so far none of the earthlings have set foot on its far side. Over time, this will certainly happen. You can, of course, fantasize about the fact that earthlings will discover lunar bases there, once built by aliens ... But scientists are convinced that none of this will happen. Even now they have a fairly good idea of ​​the far side of the Moon and understand that nothing special (especially supernatural) will be found there.

The lunar seas on the Moon have nothing to do with what the word “sea” means in our understanding, they are waterless. So what are the seas on the moon? Who gave them such interesting names? The lunar seas are dark, even and rather large areas of the lunar surface visible to us from the Earth, a kind of pits.

The seas on the moon - what kind of phenomenon?

Medieval astronomers, who first saw these areas on the Moon, suggested that they were just seas filled with water. In the future, these areas were called quite romantically: the Sea of ​​Tranquility, the Sea of ​​Abundance, the Sea of ​​Rains, etc. As it turned out in reality, the lunar seas and oceans are lowlands, plains. They were formed by flows of solidified lava, pouring out of the crevices of the lunar crust, which appeared as a result of its attack by meteorites. Due to the fact that the solidified lava has a darker color than the rest of the surface of the Moon, the lunar seas are visible from Earth precisely in the form of extensive dark spots.

Ocean of Storms

The largest lunar sea bearing Storms has a length of more than 2,000 kilometers, and in total, amazing depressions occupy about 16% of the satellite's surface. This is the most extensive lava spill on the Moon. It is unusual that it does not, that is, it suggests the assumption that cosmic strikes did not fall on it. And, perhaps, lava simply flowed from neighboring dents.

Further clockwise, three clearly visible rounded seas open up to us - Rains, Clarity and Tranquility. All copyrights to these names belong to Riccioli and Grimaldi, presumably people with a very difficult character.

Features of the Sea of ​​​​Rains

The Lunar Sea of ​​Rains is the most terrible scar on the face of the Moon. According to some known data, this point was hit more than once: by asteroids and even, it is quite likely that by the nucleus of the comet itself. The first time was about 3.8 billion years ago. Lava poured out from there in several splashes, which were enough to form an ocean of Storms. "Mosquito baldness" in the Sea of ​​​​Rains is rather immodest, but just opposite, on the reverse side of the lunar surface, Van der Graaff crater bulged out with a shock wave. At this point in time, somewhere in the Sea of ​​Rains, the Chinese Jade Hare (lunar rover Yutu) has gone into the unmanifested, which has already completed its mission in the winter of 2013-2014 and now fell into its last sleep, occasionally, once every few months, modestly snoring to the delight of earthly radio amateurs.

Sea of ​​Clarity

It has a shock origin and also with a mascon, almost as good as the previous one. Of all the lunar dents, these are the two most powerful. In the eastern part of this sea, the legendary Soviet Lunokhod-2 froze. He unsuccessfully drowned in a system of nested craters, after which he was covered with lunar dust and stuck. But, in spite of everything, he selflessly crawled along this sea for four whole months in 1973. But in the Sea of ​​Tranquility, there are no gravitational anomalies. It does not have a percussive origin. Presumably, its formation is a consequence of the flow from the Sea of ​​Clarity. Its fame is explained by the fact that in the summer of 1969 the American Apollo 11 landed there, from which the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong, came out, who uttered the catchphrase about a small step and a giant leap.

Sea of ​​Plenty

Further, our attention is presented to another unstressed lunar sea - Abundance. It has a small, but rather strange It seems that the lowland has been present there since very ancient times, but lava flowed billions of years later. Where is unclear. This sea is known for the fact that in 1970 the Soviet "Luna-16" scooped up soil there and delivered it to Earth. That's "abundance" for you. To the north and south of the Sea of ​​​​Plenty are two more seas - dents with quite clear gravitational anomalies. To the north is the Sea of ​​Crises, to the south is the Sea of ​​Nectar.

In general, these names are the fruit of the fantasy of intricate Italians. However, it is not clear how to explain the fact that two of our lunar stations crashed and crashed in the Sea of ​​Crises. Our third station, it should be noted, successfully mined soil there and returned home. And no one had more desire to appear there from the Earth. And for the "nectar" they never tried at all.

The Sea of ​​Nectar is one of the earliest seas of the Moon. He is predicted to be seventy million years older than the Sea of ​​Rains. And there are only three large lunar seas left, they are located in a triangle to the south-west of the center of the lunar disk - these are the seas of Clouds, Humidity and the Known (emphasis on "a").

The Seas of Clouds and the Known are non-impact formations and are included in the general system of the Ocean of Storms. The Sea of ​​Humidity is located somewhat on the outskirts and has its own very extensive mascon. The Sea of ​​Clouds is of interest because it was formed much later in a place where there were many craters earlier. When lava poured over all the lowlands, this area was flooded along with ancient craters. But they are still visible to us, the very edges, in the form of numerous ring low hills. Of course, they are visible only in a normal telescope, pseudo-equipment will not show this. In addition to everything, there is one interesting object in the Sea of ​​​​Clouds - the Straight Wall. It is a break in the lunar crust in the form of a height difference on flat terrain, which runs in an almost straight line of 120 kilometers, its height is about 300 meters.

In September 2013, a meteorite the size of a car accidentally hit this sea, exploding spectacularly. Spanish astronomers, who recorded this event, claim that this is the largest lunar meteorite of all that it seemed to mankind to see. There is still a lot of garbage walking on the Moon from the main one between Mars and Jupiter. At various times, many observers talked about some exciting and mysterious "sparks" on the surface of the moon - that's exactly what it is. The Moisture Sea Mascon is ideal for exploring. Throughout 2012, two NASA probes flew around the Moon, engaged in specific gravimetry (the GRAIL program), thanks to which a more or less clear map of all the gravitational anomalies of the Moon was compiled, and photos of the lunar seas were also taken. But nothing is known about the origin and history of occurrence there, there are no samples from there.

But the name of the last sea from our list - the Known - appeared in 1964. It is not the Italians who have tried, but the International Space Committee. It got its name because it gave a sufficient number of successful launches for all lunar programs and deliveries of soil samples.

Why don't the moon seas disappear?

A natural question arises: "Why did the Moon suffer so much? And why is it all beaten up in such a strange mystical way, while the Earth is unharmed and very beautiful?" Was Luna hired to work part-time as some kind of space shield? Far from it. The moon is not a shield for our planet. And the space debris flying into both of them is more or less evenly distributed. And, most likely, even more into the Earth - it is larger. It's just that the Moon doesn't have the ability to heal wounds. For four and a half billion years of its history, it has retained the traces of almost all the blows that were inflicted on it from space. There is nothing to heal them - there is no and no water to have erosion and smoothing; there is no vegetation to close faults and craters. The only effect on the moon is solar radiation. Thanks to her, the light scars of impact craters darken over the centuries, that's all. The soil of the Moon is everywhere - regolith. This is basalt rock ground into a kind of powder with an unthinkably exhausting threshing machine (Neil Armstrong once said that regolith smells of burning and shot caps). And the Earth immediately tightens and overgrows all combat wounds. And compared to the moon, this happens quite lightning fast. Small pits disappear without a trace, and large impact craters, of course, leave their mark, but they strongly sink and overgrow. And there are enough scars on our planet.

If you have ever admired the bright full moon, you might have noticed dark spots on the surface of its disk. It's about famous seas. But what are these formations and did they contain water?

Mysterious satellite of the Earth

moon located at a distance 384,467 km from Earth and shine brightly in the night sky. Its surface can be seen without the use of magnifiers, and basic binoculars show many interesting details.

Ancient scientists also observed the earth satellite and could notice dark spots for which 40% lunar surface. We are used to correlating everything with earthly characteristics, so we considered that light territories are mainland, and the dark areas seas.

Even Galileo Galilei suspected that these depressions could be filled with water. But for the first time the lunar seas appeared on map Moon in 1652. It was compiled by an astronomer from Italy Giovanni Riccioli and physicist Francesco Grimaldi. But further research with improved instruments made it clear that there was no water in these "seas", but the name itself stuck.

What are we dealing with?

The lunar seas are considered the largest visual details when viewing an earth satellite. This is about lowlands. Characterized by a leveled bottom and filled lava in solid state. This lava appears darker in color than the rest of the surface area.

It is believed that the age of basalt reaches 3-4.5 billion years. V size the seas stretch out 200-1100 km across and prefer a round shape. On closer examination, one can notice that in some places small mountain heights peek out from under the basalt layer. There are many more crater formations on the mainland.

How did they appear?

Interestingly, on dark side of the moon the number of seas is much more modest, moreover, they are inferior in size. Scientists believe that these formations arose due to a series of collisions. Initially, these were craters, which gradually filled with lava, creating a mass concentrated on the site (mascons).

But in terms of gravity, the continents are inferior to lava accumulations, therefore in mass distribution could arise symmetry. The terrestrial force of gravity, which keeps the hemisphere covered by the seas in our review, also played its role. But on the dark side you can find large pools.

The largest sea on the moon

The largest representative of lunar sea formations is considered Ocean of Storms. The name came from Giovanni Riccioli. Extends in length to 2500 km and has an irregular shape. You can find it on the western side of the lunar "face".

Interestingly, in 1969 a mission module landed on the territory of this sea Apollo 12, where Alan Bean and Charles Conrad came. I also managed to get a few samples The Ocean of Storms, which turned out to be much lighter in color than in the Sea of ​​Tranquility.

P.S

On the Moon you can find many seas, as well as bays, lakes and even swamps. Many intrigue with their names, like the Lake of Happiness or the Swamp of Rotting. Let's hope that one day we will personally consider these formations, but for now we will observe from afar.