A special exhibit at the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma, A New Moon Rises, features some spectacular photographs of the Moon.
Shown above is high noon on the moon.
According to the display:
“The sunlight at noon minimizes shadows but enhances subtle differences in surface brightness. The dark material is mare basalt, a volcanic rock that formed when lava erupted and flooded large impact basins early in the Moon’s history. The brightest features are ejecta, deposits and bright rays of material thrown from relatively recent impact craters.”
Shown above is the Tycho crater. This is an impact crater which is considered to be a young Copernican crater—that is, a crater less than one billion years old.
Shown above is Tycho’s central peak.
This isolated mountain raises 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) at the center of Tycho crater.
This is the Apollo 12 landing site in Oceanus Procellarum.
This is the Apollo 14 landing site in the Fra Mauro Highlands.
This is the Apollo 11 landing site in the Sea of Tranquility.
This is the Apollo 15 landing site in the Hadley Plains.
Shown above is a valley on the Aristarchus Plateau.
According to the display:
“It is more than 150 kilometers (93 miles) long, 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) wide, and 500 meters (1,640 feet) deep. Sinuous rilles are channels carved by eruptions of very fluid lava.”
Shown above are some intersecting wrinkles.
According to the display:
“Lava once flooded and filled the mare basins. After it hardened into basalt, tectonic forces broke and buckled the volcanic rock into complex patters of wrinkle ridges that zigzag through the dark mare.”
Shown above is a band of rugged mountains in Schrodinger Basin.
According to the display:
“This basin has only a fairly thin veneer of lava covering its floor, so its original form is mostly intact. Large parts of the basin were uplifted and pulled apart, causing the 100-kilometer (62-mile) long, 200-meter (660-foot) deep narrow trough, or graben, that cuts across the scene.”
Shown above are lunar swirls.
According to the display:
“Lunar swirls are among the Moon’s most beautiful and bizarre features. These bright, sinuous patterns look like they are painted across the flat mare terrain and up and over the tall peaks. Some scientists believe they may result from local magnetic field anomalies that shield the surface from the solar wind striking the lunar soil.”
Shown above is a far side mosaic made with 1,686 images, most of which were acquired during two weeks in 2011.
This is where the sun never shines. There are no seasons on the Moon and at the poles the angle of the sunlight is the lowest.
Shown above is a near side mosaic made up from 1,300 images captured in 2010.
Shown above is Giordano Bruno from an angle.
According to the display:
“Giordano Bruno may be the most spectacular of the young, large impact craters on the Moon. Rock melted by the impact pooled within the sharp-featured crater. Heaps of jagged boulders little the floor, which itself has few craters—evidence that Giordano Bruno is very young. It may have even been formed within the last few thousand years.”
Shown above is a topographic map in which the colors represent elevation.
Shown above is the north pole.
Museums 101
Museums 101 is a series of photo tours of different museum exhibits. More from this series:
Museums 101: Japanese glass fishing floats (photo diary)
Museums 101: Model railroad (photo diary)
Museums 101: The Fort Vancouver Surgeon's Quarters (Photo Diary)
Museums 101: Logging (Photo Diary)
Museums 101: Household Items in the East Benton County Museum (Photo Diary)
Museums 101: The Blacksmith Shop at Fort Vancouver (Photo Diary)
Museums 101: The Great Depression (photo diary)
Museums 101: Homestead Bedroom (Photo Diary)