Robby
02-08-2008, 12:56 PM
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0802/iridium_100407friedman_c800.jpg (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0802/iridium_100407friedman.jpg)
The Bay of Rainbows
Credit & Copyright (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply): Alan Friedman (http://www.avertedimagination.com/)
Explanation: Dark, smooth regions that cover the Moon's familiar face (http://www.lindahall.org/events_exhib/exhibit/ exhibits/moon/frontisp.htm) are called by Latin names for oceans and seas. The naming (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Selenography#Mapping_and_naming_the_Moon) convention is historical (http://www.inconstantmoon.com/lim_0109.htm), though it may seem a little ironic to denizens of the space age who recognize the Moon as a mostly dry and airless world, and the smooth, dark areas as lava-flooded impact basins (http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/planet_volcano/lunar/ Overview.html). For example, this elegant lunar vista, a careful mosaic (http://www.avertedimagination.com/img_pages/ iridium_100407.html) of telescopic images, looks across the expanse of the northwestern Mare Imbrium (http://www.lunarrepublic.com/atlas/sections/ b2.shtml), or Sea of Rains, into the Sinus Iridium - the Bay of Rainbows. Ringed by the Jura Mountains (montes), the bay is about 250 kilometers across, bounded at the bottom of the rugged arc by Cape (promontorium (http://www.stargazing.net/David/moon/ atlaspromontorium.html)) Laplace. The cape's sunlit face towers nearly 3,000 meters above the bay's surface. At the top of the arc is Cape Heraclides, at times seen as a moon maiden (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030619.html).
(Via NASA) (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080208.html)
The Bay of Rainbows
Credit & Copyright (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply): Alan Friedman (http://www.avertedimagination.com/)
Explanation: Dark, smooth regions that cover the Moon's familiar face (http://www.lindahall.org/events_exhib/exhibit/ exhibits/moon/frontisp.htm) are called by Latin names for oceans and seas. The naming (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Selenography#Mapping_and_naming_the_Moon) convention is historical (http://www.inconstantmoon.com/lim_0109.htm), though it may seem a little ironic to denizens of the space age who recognize the Moon as a mostly dry and airless world, and the smooth, dark areas as lava-flooded impact basins (http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/planet_volcano/lunar/ Overview.html). For example, this elegant lunar vista, a careful mosaic (http://www.avertedimagination.com/img_pages/ iridium_100407.html) of telescopic images, looks across the expanse of the northwestern Mare Imbrium (http://www.lunarrepublic.com/atlas/sections/ b2.shtml), or Sea of Rains, into the Sinus Iridium - the Bay of Rainbows. Ringed by the Jura Mountains (montes), the bay is about 250 kilometers across, bounded at the bottom of the rugged arc by Cape (promontorium (http://www.stargazing.net/David/moon/ atlaspromontorium.html)) Laplace. The cape's sunlit face towers nearly 3,000 meters above the bay's surface. At the top of the arc is Cape Heraclides, at times seen as a moon maiden (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030619.html).
(Via NASA) (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080208.html)