Features of the Moon

In this article written for Day One of World Space Week 2019, I write a short piece about the features of the moon, as this year’s theme for World Space Week is ‘Lunar Theme’.

Our Moon is often a spectacular sight in the night sky. How much do we know about it? We know that it is an interesting celestial object to study, as its terrain and geography is different to those on Earth. Here are the top five geographical and geological features of the moon:

Mare: these appear as dark patches on the Moon, and were formed by lava filling craters formed by asteroid impacts. Craters: these formed when asteroids struck the Moon. They can be quite large in diameter (up to hundreds of kilometres). Mountains: our Moon has many mountain ranges, although they are not as prominent as Earth’s mountains. Rills: these are cracks on the surface of the Moon! Rays: these are bright streaks of debris from large craters.

These are very beautiful to observe, and many astrophotographers take lovely images of such features of the Moon. Check it out next time you go star/lunar-gazing!