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Posted by TonyAngel at 11:41 on 2011 Jan 13
I was touring round Mare Imbrium last night and I noticed a feature that ran from (or to) Piazzi Smyth, running aprox. parallel to the Montes Alpes and terminating at the edge of a very indistinct crater south of Plato.I could not make out whether it was a ridge or valley. I have looked on the web to find out about it, but was not successful. Most of the images of the area did not show it or only hinted at it. The only one I found where it was fairly distinctive was at.http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/lunar_orbiter/images/aimg/iv_115_h2.jpg Does anyone know what it is please?
Posted by David Arditti at 22:21 on 2011 Jan 13
Tony, I would say it is a wrinkle ridge of the Mare Imbrium. There is a ridge that starts south of Plato before bifocating, the western (IAU) branch ending near Mt Pico, the eastern at Piazzi Smyth.I am not sure what you mean by the "very indistinct crater south of Plato". I have sometimes imagined that south of Plato there could be a ghost crater of slightly greater size than Plato, its borders defined by the western wrinkle ridge branch, Pico, and the shape of the hills on the southern flanks of Plato, but this may be entirely my imagination and without foundation.The whole area is shown in an image I took on 2010 Nov 15, below.DavidNE Mare Imbrium
Posted by TonyAngel at 07:31 on 2011 Jan 14
Thank you David. I did observe the Mare Imbrium last night and the shadows were better placed and I saw quite a few more."very indistinct crater south of Plato" yes I am referring to the Ghost Crater. I had always thought it to be a crater but have never been able to find a name for it. Your image of the area is the best I have seen for bringing out the detail and the Ghost Crater matches what I sketched last night.
Posted by Chris Hooker at 13:03 on 2013 Feb 24
Charles Wood refers to this "ghost" crater in his book The Modern Moon, and he says it was named "Ancient Newton" by Johannes Schroter. However, he goes on to say there is no clear evidence that it is actually a buried crater on the floor of the Imbrium basin; it may just be a circumstantial combination of ridges, wrinkles and a few conveniently-placed peaks that our eyes interpret as a ring.Chris Hooker
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