APOD: Plato and the Lunar Alps (2014 Dec 04)

[geckzilla]

Does anyone know if there is a reason why Mont Blanc is the seemingly the only mountain on the Moon which bears an official IAU prefix "Mont", rather than "Mons"?

See:
http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Searc ... C%20montes

Let's see, montes and mons are Latin with montes being the plural form of mons so it makes sense to name ranges montes and singular mountains mons. Mont is French. It was also only the third mountain name to be approved by the IAU. Maybe it was only after that the decision was made to ensure all names from then on out were Latin. I have nothing for you but speculation.

[rstevenson]

... the odds are off the charts that this is a natural formation.

I agree. The odds are off the chart that this is a natural formation.

Rob

[Nitpicker]

... the odds are off the charts that this is a natural formation.

I agree. The odds are off the chart that this is a natural formation.

Rob

The very short odds aren't on any bookmaker's chart, anyway.

[Chris Peterson]

Let's see, montes and mons are Latin with montes being the plural form of mons so it makes sense to name ranges montes and singular mountains mons. Mont is French. It was also only the third mountain name to be approved by the IAU. Maybe it was only after that the decision was made to ensure all names from then on out were Latin. I have nothing for you but speculation.

Another pure guess might be that it's explicitly named after an Earth formation, so carries the terminology used here. (Blanc isn't Latin, either.)

[John Shaughnessy]

not to mention a almost perfect shaped face with a chin that encompasses these human features.

If you overlaid and morphed a human face to try to match this formation, it would look deformed and inhuman. Your brain likes to play tricks on you. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia

Hi geckzilla , Thanks for the feedback I'm quite familiar with the Greek term Pareidolia, that being said, there seem to be more than just that going on here, the geometry on three of the features is just to perfect to be a play on our brains in the pareidolia realm.....

[geckzilla]

there seem to be more than just that going on here, the geometry on three of the features is just to perfect to be a play on our brains in the pareidolia realm.....

I disagree. It isn't perfect by any means. It's extremely vague and your brain is filling in the pieces to make you think it's perfect.

[Ann]

http://i1032.photobucket.com/albums/a40 ... f4d158.jpg

This is a very interesting discovery I came across a short while ago, from the Earth with a pair of binoculars you can see there is a human face in the Mare Imbrium location on the lunar surface, I inserted arrows to point out such human features like a left ear, a left eye a mouth also there is a right eye that has been damaged but some of it can be made out, not to mention a almost perfect shaped face with a chin that encompasses these human features. This face is about 750 miles across ear to ear check it out on the link above, the odds are off the charts that this is a natural formation.

I can't spot that face at all, sorry.

I'm satisfied to say hi to The Lady in the Moon. She is very obvious to me. This picture of the Lady is even better, but very small.

Of course, if you ever came to the Moon and started looking for the Lady you would only find craters and lava plains and and things like that, because those are the only things that make up the striking lunar Lady.

Ann

[Beyond]

Thanks Ann. I had never seen the Lady in the moon before.

[JohnD]

The comments were as full as could be , in the limited space of an APOD caption, but there is so much there to explain!

The sinuous valley from Plato crater at two o'clock.
Maybe others in that ?ejecta field.
The crater wall collapse (?) at seven o'clock.
The even more sinuous valleys in the area to the right of Plato.
The markings in the Mare, like wrinkles on a sheet.
The Vallis Alpes itself - how? why? etc? Tick! See below
And how old is Plato - looks quite young?
John

Thank you, quigley for asking again, and thank you Ron-Astro, for that excellent fly-past up the Vallis Alpes. It showed me that the "Smiley face" at the far end was the source of the lava tube that runs all the way down the Vallis, with the "mouth" a fissure that up-welled all the lava? But where did all that lava go? The floor of the Vallis surely filled when the Mare Imbrium filled, so this was later. The tube just stops at the end nearest the Mare, halted by the mountains that fill that end of the Vallis, with no sign of pooled lava there.

Oh, and "Guest", athropomorphism can a useful way of putting names to things, but to take it seriously is infantile.

John