Contact: Bernard Foing
bernard.foing@esa.int
31-071-565-5647
European Space Agency

A View of Mare Humorum from SMART-1

Caption: This mosaic of three images, taken by the advanced Moon Imaging Experiment (AMIE)on board ESA's SMART-1 spacecraft, shows Mare Humorum on the Moon. AMIE obtained the top frame on 1 January 2006, from a distance of 1087 kilometres from the surface, with a ground resolution of 98 metres per pixel. The remaining two frames were taken on 13 January 2006, from a distance of about 1069 (centre) and 1050 kilometres (bottom) from the surface, with a ground resolution of 97 and 95 metres per pixel, respectively. The area shown in the top image is centred at a latitude of 40.2º South and longitude 25.9º West; the centre image is centred at a latitude of 40.2º South and longitude 27.3º West; the bottom image is centred at a latitude of 40.2º South and longitude 28.8º West. Mare Humorum, or 'Sea of Moisture', is a small circular mare on the lunar nearside, about 825 kilometres across, filled with a thick layer of mare basalt, (possibly exceeding 3 kilometres in thickness at the centre of the basin). Mare Humorum is a scientifically interesting area because it allows the study of the relationships among lunar mare filling, mare basin tectonics, and global thermal evolution to the major mascon maria -- that are regions of the moon's crust which contain a large amount of material denser than average for that area.

Credit: ESA/SMART-1/Space-X (Space Exploration Institute)

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