Moon Craters

The current story of the surface of the Moon is that of a heavily cratered surface. From the nature and appearance of these craters we can piece together part of the story of the Moon's history.

月球表面的现状是充满陨石坑的。通过这些陨石坑的性质和外观，我们可以拼凑出月球历史的一部分。

This is an oblique view of lunar farside photographed from the Apollo 11 spacecraft in lunar orbit on July 16, 1969. The view is looking southwest. The large crater in the center of the picture is International Astronomical Union crater (IAU) no. 308, which is located at 179 degrees east longitude and 5.5 degrees south latitude. IAU crater no. 308 has a diameter of about 50 statute miles. The ruggted terrain seen here is typical of the farside of the Moon (from the original NASA caption released with the image.)

这是1969年7月16日从阿波罗11号航天器在月球轨道上拍摄的月球远侧的斜视图。画面朝西南方向拍摄。画面中心的大型陨石坑是国际天文学联合会（IAU）编号308的陨石坑，位于东经179度，南纬5.5度。IAU编号308的陨石坑直径约为50英里。此处看到的崎岖地形是月球远侧的典型特征（原文NASA发布的图片说明。）

At left above is an image of the South polar region of the Moon constructed from about 1500 Clementine images. The projection is orthographc, centered on the south pole. The Schrodinger Basin (320 km in diameter) is located in the lower right of the mosaic. Amundsen-Ganswindt is the more subdued circular basin between Schrodinger and the pole. The polar regions of the moon are of special interest because of the postulated occurrence of ice in permanently shadowed areas. The south pole is of greater interest because the area that remains in shadow is much larger than that at the north pole.

上图左侧显示了月球南极区域的图像，该图像由约1500张Clementine拍摄的图像拼接而成。投影为正射投影，以南极为中心。Schrodinger盆地（直径320公里）位于拼接图的右下角。Amundsen-Ganswindt是位于Schrodinger盆地和南极之间的一个较暗的圆形盆地。月球的极地区域因其可能存在的冰在永久阴影区域中而备受关注。南极为此更受关注，因为保持阴影的区域比北极更大。

At right above is a similar lunar mosaic of ~1500 Clementine images of the north polar region of the moon. The projection is orthographic centered on the north pole. The north pole of the moon is absent of the very rugged terrain seen at the south pole. These descriptions are excerpted from the original NASA captions released with the images.

图中上方展示的是由约1500张克莱门特号卫星图像组成的月球拼图，这些图像覆盖了月球的北极区域。投影方式为正射投影，以北极为中心。月球的北极地区没有像南极那样 rugged 的地形。这些描述摘自原始NASA图注。

This image shows the limb of the Copernicus Impact Crater and was made by Lunar Orbiter II. Its creation date is listed as June 1, 1991. Copernicus is 93 km wide and is located within the Mare Imbrium Basin, northern nearside of the Moon (10 degrees N., 20 degrees W.). The image shows crater floor, floor mounds, rim, and rayed ejecta. Rays from the ejecta are superposed on all other surrounding terrains which places the crater in its namesake age group: the Copernican system, established as the youngest assemblage of rocks on the Moon (Shoemaker and Hackman, 1962, The Moon: London, Academic Press, p.289- 300). (From the original NASA caption released with the image.)

这张图像显示了哥白尼撞击坑的边缘，是由月球轨道器二号拍摄的。其成像日期为1991年6月1日。哥白尼撞击坑宽93公里，位于月球静海盆地的北侧近侧（北纬10度，西经20度）。图像展示了撞击坑的坑底、坑底丘陵、边缘和辐射状抛射物。这些抛射物的辐射状特征覆盖了所有周围的地形，将该撞击坑归类于其命名的哥白尼体系：该体系被确立为月球上最年轻的岩石组合（Shoemaker和Hackman，1962，《月球》，伦敦，学术出版社，第289-300页）。（摘自原始NASA图注。）

This rightly-rayed crater on the farside of the moon was photographed by Apollo 8 on December 24, 1968.The imaged area is near the subsolar point, where the sun was directly overhead as seen from the Apollo 8 spacecraft. Brightly-rayed craters are numerous on the lunar frontside; however, they had not been previously observed in such detail on the farside (excerpted from the original NASA caption released with the image.)

这张清晰显示的月球背面撞击坑是1968年12月24日由阿波罗8号拍摄的。成像区域接近太阳直射点，从阿波罗8号飞船上看，此时太阳正位于头顶。月球近侧有许多明亮的撞击坑；然而，此前在月球远侧尚未有如此详细的观测记录（摘自原始NASA图注）。

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope was aimed at one of the Moon's most dramatic and photogenic targets, the 58 mile-wide (93 km) impact crater Copernicus. The image creation date is listed as April 16, 1999 and the instrument was the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. The image was taken while the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) was aimed at a different part of the moon to measure the colors of sunlight reflected off the Moon. Hubble cannot look at the Sun directly and so must use reflected light to make measurements of the Sun's spectrum. Once calibrated by measuring the Sun's spectrum, the STIS can be used to study how the planets both absorb and reflect sunlight. The Moon is so close to Earth that Hubble would need to take a mosaic of 130 pictures to cover the entire disk. The upper left picture is a ground-based one from Lick Observatory. It shows the area covered in Hubble's photomosaic with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. In the center image, Hubble's crisp bird's-eye view clearly shows the ray pattern of bright dust ejected out of the crater over one billion years ago, when an asteroid larger than a mile across slammed into the Moon. Hubble can resolve features as small as 600 feet across in the terraced walls of the crater, and the hummock-like blanket of material blasted out by the meteor impact. The lower right image is a close-up view of Copernicus' terraced walls. Hubble can resolve features as small as 280 feet across. This description is excerpted from NASA's original picture captions. Further image credits listed: PHOTO NO.: STScI-PRC99-14 Credit: John Caldwell (York University, Ontario), Alex Storrs (STScI), and NASA.

NASA的哈勃太空望远镜瞄准了月球最壮观和最引人注目的目标之一，即直径58英里（93公里）的撞击坑哥白尼。图像创建日期为1999年4月16日，使用的仪器是宽场行星相机2。该图像是在太空望远镜成像光谱仪（STIS）瞄准月球另一区域以测量阳光反射颜色时拍摄的。哈勃无法直接观测太阳，因此必须使用反射光来测量太阳的光谱。在通过测量太阳光谱进行校准后，STIS可以用来研究行星如何吸收和反射阳光。由于月球离地球非常近，哈勃需要拍摄130张照片拼接成整个盘面。左上角的图像来自利克天文台，显示了哈勃宽场行星相机2所覆盖的区域。中间的图像中，哈勃清晰的俯视图清楚地显示了撞击坑中一亿年前由陨石撞击喷出的明亮尘埃的射线模式。哈勃可以分辨出撞击坑台阶状墙壁中仅有600英尺宽的细节，以及由陨石撞击喷出的丘陵状物质层。右下角的图像是一张关于哥白尼撞击坑台阶状墙壁的特写。哈勃可以分辨出仅有280英尺宽的细节。此描述摘自NASA原始的图片说明。其他图像版权信息如下：PHOTO NO.: STScI-PRC99-14 Credit: John Caldwell (York University, Ontario), Alex Storrs (STScI), and NASA.