Far Side of the Moon (eBook)

A Photographic Guide

Charles Byrne (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2007
XI, 215 Seiten
Springer New York (Verlag)
978-0-387-73206-0 (ISBN)

Infos

The far side of the Moon, also called the 'dark side of the Moon' was unknown to humanity until the Luna and Lunar Orbiter pictures were returned to Earth. This wonderful book contains beautiful photographs and newly-assembled mosaic images of the far side of the Moon, cleaned of transmission, imaging stripes and processing artifacts by today's computer technology. Byrne's superb analysis documents the appearance of the features of the far side with beautiful pictures from Lunar Orbiter. Until now, the far side Lunar Orbiter photos have only been available with strong reconstruction lines, but appear here for the first time as complete photographs, unmarred by imaging and processing artifacts.

Charlie Byrne worked as a systems engineer at Bellcomm, for support of the Lunar Orbiter project. He is currently carrying out research about the Moon, and was the discoverer of the gigantic 'near side megabasin' that covers nearly all of the near side of the Moon and whose ejecta has established the shape of the far side of the Moon.

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The nature of the far side of the Moon has always been a mystery. Throughout human history, the far side of the Moon has been so near, its presence so obvious, and yet so hidden. It was only in the decade of the 1960s that we have been able to observe it, as opposed to inferring its existence. I have been fortunate to live during the period when the far side became visible and has been extensively examined by means that were not even known 50 years ago. During this time, we have learned much but of course we have asked new questions about secrets still hidden on the Moon. Some of these secrets will be revealed in the course of future exploration and robotic spacecraft missions. This book is about what we now know of the far side of the Moon, about what the current questions are, and about some possible answers. It is a companion book to The Lunar Orbiter Photographic Atlas of the Near Side of the Moon, my first book (Byrne, 2005), also published by Springer in 2005. Together, these books cover the entire Moon in photographs taken by the robotic spacecraft that have done much of their work behind the Moon, out of communi- tion with Earth for half of their orbital periods. The photographs of the near side book were taken by a single mission of the Lunar Orbiter project, Lunar Orbiter 4 that was flown in 1967.

Inhalt

Preface 5
Table of Contents 8
The Far Side of the Moon 11
1.1. The Far Side Unknown: A Mystery 11
1.2. The Far Side Revealed: A New Mystery 11
1.3. The Current View of the Far Side 11
1.4. Mystery Resolved? The Near Side Megabasin 13
The Spacecraft Missions and Images 15
2.1. Spacecraft Programs 15
2.2. The Images 16
The History of the Moon and Its Features 20
3.1. Origin of the Moon 20
3.2. The Magma Ocean 20
3.3. Bombardment 20
3.4. The Near Side Megabasin 20
3.5. The South Pole-Aitken Basin 21
3.6. Impact Features: Craters and Basins 21
3.7. Mare Basalt 21
3.8. The Ages of the Lunar Features 22
Regions of the Far Side 24
4.1. The Western Far Side Region 24
4.2. The Korolev Basin Region 24
4.3. The South Pole-Aitken Basin and the South Polar Region 24
4.4. The Northwestern Far Side Region 24
4.5. The Eastern Far Side Region 24
4.6. The North Polar Region 24
4.7. The Orientale Limb Region 24
Nomenclature and Conventions of This Book 26
5.1. Identification of Named Features 26
5.2. Identification of Basins 26
5.3. Latitude and Longitude 26
5.4. Scale and Age 27
The Western Far Side Region: Earth- Rise, Tsiolkovskiy, Gagarin, and the Mendeleev Basin 28
6.1. Overview 28
6.2. Photos 28
The Korolev Basin Region 61
7.1. Overview 61
7.2. Photos 61
The South Pole-Aitken Basin and the South Polar Region 70
8.1. Overview 70
8.2. Clementine 70
8.3. Clementine and Lunar Orbiter Coverage 70
The Northwestern Far Side Region: The Moscoviense Basin 104
9.1. Overview 104
9.2. The Moscoviense Basin 104
9.3. Photos 104
The Eastern Far Side Region: Birkhoff to Hertzsprung 134
10.1. Overview 134
10.2. The Birkhoff Basin 134
10.3. The Hertzsprung Basin 134
10.4. Rayed Craters 134
10.5. Photos 134
The North Polar Far Side Region 170
11.1. Overview 170
11.2. The Western Far Side Limb ( Eastern Near Side Limb) 170
11.3. Bel’kovich K, a Copernican Crater 170
11.4. Clementine Mosaics 170
The Orientale Limb Region 182
12.1. Overview 182
12.2. The Crater Hausen 182
12.3. Radial Profile of the Orientale Basin 182
12.4. Photos 182
The Near Side Megabasin 204
13.1. How the Far Side Differs from the Near Side and Why 204
13.2. Impact Basin Models: The Search for the Source of the Far Side Crust 204
13.3. The Near Side Megabasin and its Effects on the Far Side 206
13.4. The South Pole-Aitken Basin and its Effects on the Near Side 208
13.5. Thickness of the Crust 208
13.6. Parameters of the Near Side Megabasin 209
13.7. Asymmetry of the Center of Mass 209
13.8. Heavy Element Anomalies 209
13.9. Summary 210
Glossary 211
References 213
Cleaning the Scanning Artifacts-from Lunar Orbiter Photos 214
A.1. Nature of the scanning artifacts 214
A.2. A program to clean the artifacts 214
A.3. Summary 216
General Index 217
Index of Annotated Features 219
Index of Far Side Features that are not Annotated 223
Index of Photographs 224

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 23.10.2007
• Zusatzinfo: XI, 215 p.
• Verlagsort: New York
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Natur / Technik ► Weltraum / Astronomie
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Geowissenschaften ► Geologie
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Physik / Astronomie ► Astronomie / Astrophysik
• Themenwelt: Technik ► Fahrzeugbau / Schiffbau
• Themenwelt: Technik ► Luft- / Raumfahrttechnik
• Schlagworte: dark side of the moon • far side of the moon • lunar atlas • lunar craters • lunar maps • lunar orbiter photos • moon atlas • near side ejecta • pictures of the moon • Sun
• ISBN-10: 0-387-73206-3 / 0387732063
• ISBN-13: 978-0-387-73206-0 / 9780387732060