A Wisdom Archive on Aristarchus Crater

Aristarchus is a prominent lunar impact crater that lies in the northwest part of the Moon's near side. It is considered the brightest of the large formations on the lunar surface, with an albedo nearly double that of most lunar features. The feature is bright enough to be visible to the naked eye, and is dazzling in a large telescope. It is also readily identified when most of the lunar surface is illuminated by earth-shine. The Aristarchus crater is located on an elevated rocky plateau, known as the Aristarchus plateau, in the midst of the Oceanus Procellarum lava plain. It is just to ... Including:

• Aristarchus crater - Remote sensing
• Aristarchus crater - Transient lunar phenomenon
• Aristarchus crater - Satellite craters

Read more here: » Aristarchus crater: Encyclopedia - Aristarchus crater

By convention these features are identified on lunar maps by placing the letter on the side of the crater mid-point that is closest to Aristarchus crater. The following craters have been renamed by the IAU. Aristarchus A — See Väisälä crater. Aristarchus C — See Toscanelli crater. ...

Read more here: » Aristarchus crater: Encyclopedia II - Aristarchus crater - Satellite craters

In 1911, Professor Robert W. Wood used ultraviolet photography to take images of the crater area. He discovered the plateau had an anomalous appearance in the ultraviolet, and an area to the north appeared to give indications of a sulfur deposit. This colorful area is sometimes referred to as "Wood's Spot", an alternate name for the Aristarchus Plateau. Spectra taken of this crater during the Clementine mission was used to perform mineral mapping. The data indicated that the central peak is a type of rock called anorthosite, which is ...

Read more here: » Aristarchus crater: Encyclopedia II - Aristarchus crater - Remote sensing

• Aristarchus - Heliocentrism
• Aristarchus - Size of the Moon
• Aristarchus - Distance to the Sun

Read more here: » Aristarchus: Encyclopedia - Aristarchus

The only work of Aristarchus which has survived to the present time, On the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moon, is based on a geocentric worldview. We know through citations, however, that Aristarchus wrote another book in which he advanced an alternative hypothesis of the heliocentric model. Archimedes wrote: "You King Gelon are aware the 'universe' is the name given by most astronomers to the sphere the centre of which is the center of the Earth, while its radius is equal to the straight line between the center of ...

Read more here: » Aristarchus: Encyclopedia II - Aristarchus - Heliocentrism

The physical nature of lunar rays has historically been a subject of speculation. Early hypotheses suggested that they were deposits of salt from evaporated water. Later they were thought to be deposits of volcanic ash or streaks of dust. After the impact origin of craters became accepted, Eugene Shoemaker suggested during the 1960s that the rays were the result of fragmented ejecta material. Recent studies suggest that the relative brightness of a lunar ray system is not always a reliable indicator of the age of a ray system. Instead ...

Read more here: » Ray system: Encyclopedia II - Ray system - Lunar rays

Certain aspects of the Moon continue to baffle astronomers. It has been found that the full Moon, instead of having twice the illumination of the first or last quarter Moon, is in fact almost 19 percent brighter. Other mysteries concern lunar features that have apparently changed. One of the most famous cases concerns the lunar crater Linne in the are of Mare Serenitatis. In 1834, the German astronomer Lohrmann stated that the crater can be seen under all angles of illumination, and is the second most conspicuous crater on the Moon. T ...

Read more here: » Selenography: Encyclopedia II - Selenography - Lunar Anomalies

Elemental sulfur can be found near hot springs and volcanic regions in many parts of the world, especially along the Pacific Ring of Fire. These occurrences are the basis for the traditional name brimstone, since sulfur could be found near the brims of volcanic craters. Such volcanic deposits are currently exploited in Indonesia, Chile, and Japan. Significant desposits of elemental sulfur also exist in salt domes along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and in evaporites in eastern Europe and western Asia. The sulfur in these deposits i ...

Read more here: » Sulfur: Encyclopedia II - Sulfur - Occurrence