Tycho Crater

Tycho Crater.



It's one of the most recognized feature of the moon when humans look up at it. It's had different names in the past:

The earliest known is "Umbilicus Lunaris" meaning "The Navel Of The Moon".
It's also been called "Vladislai IV" in 1645 in honor Władysław IV Vasa, King of Poland.
Johannes Hevelius called it "Mons Sinai" after Mount Sinai.

Eventually the name Tycho was given to it in honor of Tycho Brahe, a Danish astronomer that lived from 1546 to 1601.

Tycho stands out to many due to it's over all brightness, and the ejecta rays that scatter from it.

At over 86 km in diameter, it's a large feature that shows up well in both telescopes and binoculars. Even without them, it stands out to the human eye. Both when being lit by sun light



And even when it's being lit by Earth shine:



Tycho is considered a young crater being formed around 108 million years ago by an impactor that was somewhere between 2 miles and 4 miles wide.

Looking at the crater, we can imagine what that impact must have looked like.....especially if it had been night with that side of the moon in darkness. The fireball would have been tremendous, lighting up our night sky to daylight briefly.

While a sight like that would be awsome to behold, it would also make me very worried about impact ejecta reaching here to the Earth.

Tycho being so well known, has been featured in many pop culture references. It was the spot of the monolith in Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssee, Robert Heinlein in his book, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress refered to a habitat built at Tycho, Star Trek even had a Tycho City.
Even the movies Men In Black refered to Tycho in a line about a treaty.

One of the things that I love to do is take close up looks at Tycho using images from the LROC that I thought I would share with you:

In this picture you can imagine the ground being molten after the impact, then slowly cooling, forming the flowing looking rock, folds and cracks we see in it:



On the rim of the crater, you can see how it's terraced, with flows that etched through the rock faces:



Other places where the rock cooled quickly, cracked and formed bolders:



Is it a impact crater or not? Looks like a lava chamber cooled and contracted to where the surface collapsed:



These are the central peeks that rise in the center of Tycho. They rise 2 km from the crater floor:



Last, is a interesting pic to me. I found some rocks...laying in a circle:



Here is the coordinates for those rocks in case anyone else would like to go look at them:

-43.27938
-10.56037

Over all the moon itself is just fun to look at, especially up close and personal like the LROC can make it. For any that enjoy doing this too, but don't know how, here is a link to the LROC Quick Maps, where you can explore to your heart's content:

LROC Quick Maps

Hope you enjoyed taking a closer look at Tycho Crater.

S&F, Nice thread thanks for sharing with us!

I love looking at the moon's features, I find it very fascinating.... just wish I had a good telescope of my own. Oh and thanks or for the link to the LROC Quick Maps, really appreciated!

I like the stone circle formation you found.
Here is a large one from Mars taken by the Spirit rover.

reply to post by LeLeu


Interesting!

Thanks for sharing!

S & F
Thank you for a nicely presented thread. I enjoyed your explanations
& photos & found it all very interesting. Thanks for the LROC info as that is a great site!

Cheers
Ektar

So often taken for granted, the moon. Easily the most revered and contemplated celestial object, and you can get lost in it, whether it's in extreme detail on a laptop screen or gazed upon with the unaided eye from a few hundred thousand miles away. And what feelings have been felt, what ideas and ideals have been pondered by billions of others of our kind whilst locked in on it's surface?

Nice pics, but I couldn't find a single crashed spacecraft or ruined tower, so in that aspect, I'm slightly disappointed.

Originally posted by DystopianOrigami
So often taken for granted, the moon. Easily the most revered and contemplated celestial object, and you can get lost in it, whether it's in extreme detail on a laptop screen or gazed upon with the unaided eye from a few hundred thousand miles away. And what feelings have been felt, what ideas and ideals have been pondered by billions of others of our kind whilst locked in on it's surface?

Nice pics, but I couldn't find a single crashed spacecraft or ruined tower, so in that aspect, I'm slightly disappointed.

If I actually found a crashed spaceship or ruined tower.....I'd be too excited to post a proper thread. It would be a picture of it, with me going:

"LOOK! ZOMG! I...wowo! I....blah! LOOOOOK!"

I'm trying to find clear images of Euler crater and the surrounding areas for a thread I'm working on... Just my luck the LROC Quick Maps are extremely pixelated exactly where I need to look

reply to post by Dominar


Yes, it can be disappointing in some areas.

However, more and more of those areas are being filled in by the LROC.

Awesome! Thank you. I love the moon. I remember the first time I saw it through a telescope. It was like I had never seen it before. It's an actual three dimensional object, flying around out there. Totally cool

I was actually looking through old NASA moon pics and found one of my old favorites.

Original is


or


and here is my version with few highlights



just click on original and enjoy!

reply to post by Imurxtacy247


That's a shot of Surveyor 3 from the Apollo 12 landing, right?

Really cool and thanks for sharing!

Yes Apollo 12 visit to Surveyor 3. Its actually amazing how much is visible in the old pics. Way too many with same shape to be rocks.

Glad you enjoyed!

Originally posted by eriktheawful
Tycho Crater.
...It's one of the most recognized feature of the moon when humans look up at it. It's had different names in the past:
...
...Tycho stands out to many due to it's over all brightness, and the ejecta rays that scatter from it.
...At over 86 km in diabeter, it's a large feature that shows up well in both telescopes and binoculars. Even without them, it stands out to the human eye. Both when being lit by sun light
...Last, is a interesting pic to me. I found some rocks...laying in a circle:
...Here is the coordinates for those rocks in case anyone else would like to go look at them:
-43.27938
-10.56037
...Over all the moon itself is just fun to look at, especially up close and personal like the LROC can make it. For any that enjoy doing this too, but don't know how, here is a link to the LROC Quick Maps, where you can explore to your heart's content:
...Hope you enjoyed taking a closer look at Tycho Crater.

Hey Eric that was just awful
Or...very interesting.
I like the way you posed what others believe...without making judgment...then gave some of your own theory and tossed in a quizzical puzzle for those interested.
Thanks for the link and coordinates - I will probably take advantage of them.
Oh--- any ideas on the circle of rocks you're willing to make public?

I was just on youtube looking at moon fly overs by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) although this one is not actual video it gives detailed topography

Here's a full video of new moon footage from the Kaguya satellite missions that further our views of the moon, the first minute of the video brings the viewer into Tycho crater.

Originally posted by Imurxtacy247
Yes Apollo 12 visit to Surveyor 3. Its actually amazing how much is visible in the old pics. Way too many with same shape to be rocks.
Glad you enjoyed!

Care to expand on that

was it an inpact ? is an super volcano eruption with caldera out of the question?
that would mean that the centre of the moon is still liquid

Originally posted by ressiv
was it an inpact ? is an super volcano eruption with caldera out of the question?
that would mean that the centre of the moon is still liquid

edit on 3-6-2013 by ressiv because: (no reason given)

Well we do have seismic data from the Moon.

Lunar seismology

Imagine the kind of view you'd get standing on the edge of this crater, looking across 86 km of terrain which looks as clear as the ground at your feet. I'd be gob-smacked.

Google Earth view:


By the way, the Moon in Google Earth has been enriched with hi-res imagery in some places, so go ahead and check out your favourite sites there.

Here's the Google Earth view of the 1km wide Rima Hadley, as the Apollo 15 astronauts saw it.