Since the earliest times, the gaze of billions of eyes has been streaming into the night sky, people have tried to unravel the mystery of the silent satellite illuminating their path. The moon is not only our closest cosmic neighbor, it is an integral part of our life, everywhere accompanying us with its mysterious light, which is mentioned in poetry and prose, films and music, hundreds of legends and mystical stories.
From ancient times, its alluring light attracted the attention of ordinary people and great scientists who tried to solve its eternal mystery.
Scientists of the past in solving the mystery
The first attempts to know the nature of the moon, leaving aside myths and legends were made by the ancient Greek writer Plutarch, who tried to unravel the mystery of the moon spots.
One of the great people who has made an invaluable contribution to unraveling the eternal mystery is Leonardo da Vinci. However, he, having knowledge far ahead of the time in which he lived, was no less a mystery to his contemporaries and subsequent generations. He suggested that the moon was similar to the earth and proposed a theory that explained the luminosity of the moon. The ashen light of the Moon is an amazing phenomenon: we see the whole celestial body, although the Sun illuminates only part of it. At the same time, a part of the surface of the Moon, on which direct sunlight does not fall, has a characteristic ashy shade. This effect is today known as the da Vinci glow. The scientist immortalized his name, presented progressive ideas for consideration at a time when mankind had no idea that the Earth revolves around the Sun.
The great astronomer Nikolai Copernicus, with his immortal work “On the Circulation of the Heavenly Circles”, in which he indicated that the Earth is a celestial body and one of the planets, brought closer the resolution of the issue of the nature of the Moon.
Galileo Galilei, without any doubt, was the first scientist to make a huge breakthrough in the consciousness of mankind regarding the appearance of the surface of the moon. He described the relief of the moon and made a grand discovery about the presence of mountains and mountain ranges. For his research, he invented a makeshift pipe that allowed him to discover the unknown moon world. Unable to conduct more detailed studies, he perceived the dark spots on the moon as the seas and mistakenly claimed that the moon and the earth were completely identical, assuming that there was air and water on the first. On lunar maps to this day fourteen seas are represented, occupying almost half of its surface. Although now everyone already knows that all of these "seas" do not contain a drop of water and are flat areas among many mountains and mountain ranges, regarding which the brilliant scientist was not a bit wrong. It was Galileo who invented the method of determining the height of the mountains on the Moon based on the length of the shadows cast by them, stretching in the direction opposite to that from which the glow of the Sun emanates and emphasizing the relief of the lunar surface. He also discovered and named two mountain ranges - the famous lunar Alps and the Apennines.
The study of lunar mountains was continued by the Italian astronomer Riccioli, who in 1651 published a map of the moon. Although he himself did not take an active part in the observations, we can observe his direct participation in the process of designating many parts of the lunar landscape even now, since the names given to him have been preserved on many lunar maps. He even called one of the mountains his own name.
Lunar terrain
Currently, observing the Moon through binoculars or a small telescope, we can see that its surface consists of two distinct types of terrain: dark flat plains and light mountainous terrain, which is covered with numerous craters of different sizes.
Previously, as already mentioned, the dark spots of the plains were mistaken for the seas, because at that time they did not suspect that there was no water on the dry, airless surface of the moon, so they called them maria, which in Latin means sea.
Mountains on the moon have a peculiar ring shape and come in two forms: circuses and craters.
The paths of their formation are different from earthly processes. On our planet, mountains are formed in one of the following ways:
- tectonic - the collision of plates forming the Earth’s surface with each other (most mountains and mountain peaks have this origin)
- volcanic - the formation of mountains under the influence of hot magma rising from the depths of the Earth to volcanoes.
The process of the formation of lunar mountains is a question that has long been exciting scientists and causing controversy.
There are two hypotheses:
- According to one of them, the first mountains on the moon arose as a result of impacts of giant asteroids in the distant past, which at the dawn of history there were a huge number in the solar system. Under the influence of these impacts, craters were formed on its surface in size much larger than those that we see today. They are, according to this theory, the so-called "seas".
- However, there is also a hypothesis of the volcanic origin of mountains. Her supporters believe that mountains formed in areas of subsidence or subsidence of the surface during the heating of the lunar interior.
What mountains are on the moon?
Let's find out more about this. How do you feel about the idea of ​​moon climbing? We don’t even need spacesuits, only your imagination.
Mountain ranges and individual mountains are indicated by Latin names: montes - mountain ranges and mons - individual mountains. And we will start from the landing site of the last manned lunar explorer Apollo 17. At this point are the Taurus Mountains (Montes Taurus), located east of the Sea of ​​Clarity. The two main mountain ranges share two other features of the lunar landscape. The Sea of ​​Clarity is separated from the Sea of ​​Souls by the Caucasus Mountains in the north, and by the Apennines in the south. At their intersection, Mount Hadley is visible, named after the British inventor and mathematician John Hadley (1682-1743). The lunar Alps surround the northwestern Plato crater of an ideal oval shape.
On the barren surface of the Sea of ​​Rains are two of the most impressive single mountain peaks of Python and Pico. Python has a base with a diameter of 25 km and a height of 2250 m above the surrounding plain. Even more striking is the imagination of Pico with a base of 15x25 km and a height of 2400 m. Both are named after the mountains on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
Although these mountains look amazing against the background of the dim glow of the rising sun, in reality they are still quite gentle compared to those on Earth. But this does not stop us from admiring them during an imaginary walk on the moon.
List of mountains on the moon
Based on the data provided in various sources, the most famous mountains in the northeast are:
- Alps (Montes Alpes);
- Alpine Valley (Vallis Alpes);
- Caucasus (Montes Caucasus);
- Apennines (Montes Apenninus);
- Hemus Mountains (Montes Haemus);
- Tauride Mountains (Montes Taurus).
In the southeast, the most visible are the Pyrenees (Montes Pyrenaeus).
In the South-West:
- Straight Wall (Rupes Recta);
- Riphean Mountains (Montes Riphaeus).
In North-west:
- Schreter Valley (Vallis Schroteri);
- Mountains Jura (Montes Jura).
The height of the mountains on the moon at some points reaches eight kilometers.
Huygens Peak
It is located on the edge of the Sea of ​​Rains and its highest point is located at an altitude of 5.5 km from the level of the Sea. Included in the mountain system of the lunar Apennines and is the highest mountain on the moon (however, not the highest point). The highest part of Huygens is located in the bright crater zone to the right of Amp Peak.
The mountain was named after the Dutch astronomer, mathematician and physician Christian Huygens.
Quiet Mountain on the Moon
It is impossible to ignore this mountain, named after the Danish scientist Tycho Brahe in 1961 by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Riccioli.
It is a brilliant dot with diverging rays in all directions on the underside of the moon. According to the existing version, the longest ray of the Tycho crater separates the Sea of ​​Clarity and extends 4000 km from the crater. The majestic Mount Tycho is a crater with a diameter of 95 km. During the full moon, Tycho can be observed in all its splendor: it emits such dazzling light that it seems to permeate the universe and delight many researchers.
Will the dream come true
You can roam the moon indefinitely, but our journey for today is drawing to a close, although no one bothers us to continue it - you can do this at any time, just by looking at the starry sky.
And who knows, someday anyone will have the opportunity to actually make it and touch with their own hands the alluring cold of these mysterious moon mountains. Fantasy? But people in ancient times could not even imagine that someday a human foot would set foot on the surface of the moon.