This two-shot mosaic of the Tychonian ray system tells a little bit about the origin of Tycho crater. Notice the densest fan of rays extend toward the Moons southeastern highlands. Since fewer crater rays extend in the direction an oblique impactor came from, the more sparse rays toward the west say the asteroid impact that created Tycho crater came in low from the west, resulting in a greater splash of ray material toward the east. Data gathered by the Apollo manned missions to the Moon over 40 years ago have dated Tycho crater as being created about 108 million years ago. The “space weathering” process of meteoric infall takes nearly a billion years to erase evidence of a crater ray system. Tychos ray system, which extends across half the visible face of the Moon, is still displayed in all its original glory. Images taken through a Celestron 11 Edge HD with a Skyris 274M camera.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 11:20:04 +0000
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