scenario is that there is a buried chunk of the asteroid or comet that created the mare basin beneath the surface. It has a geometric appearance, a roughly hexagonal shape, and is the source of a number of enduring mysteries of lunar anomaly investigation.
NASA photo AS15-M-0954.
The standard model for Crisium’s smooth, dark appearance is that sometime after the major bombardment of the Moon which formed most of its plentiful craters, a large object struck the lunar surface with such force that it made the area within the boundaries of Crisium molten. After some period of time, the area cooled and dark “basaltic lavas” (volcanic rocks) gave the region its dark, pond like appearance. Most of the visible craters in Mare Crisium are most probably smaller (and later) impacts that upset the relatively smooth surface of the “pond.” This would seem to be supported at least in part by the presence of the mascon, which as stated above may be the remnants of the impact event which formed the region. None of this however explains how the region ended up shaped like a hexagon. It should have a rounded outline, like all other “normal” impact basins.
Telescopic view of hexagonal Mare Crisium impact basin.
Mare Crisium is also the location of at least 12 Transient Lunar Phenomenon reports over the years. In 1882, an English mechanic who was also an amateur astronomer named J.G. Jackson made the following observation of Crisium:
Last evening (May 19th) on observing the moon’s slender crescent, about two days old, I was struck with a very peculiar appearance on the westerly side of Mare Crisium, just on, or immediately within, the dark of the ‘terminator. ’ It seemed a curved feathery mist or cloud lying just over the edge of the ‘Mare,’ and against the spur or range of mountains bounding the westerly side of the great valley. It seemed to be divided longitudinally by a faint dark line, and looked not unlike a feather. It must have been more than 100 miles long, by 40 or 50 miles wide. The definition was excellent, and I watched it for nearly an hour, showing it to several friends. In colour and appearance it was so strikingly different from the other illuminated parts, and so different from anything else I have ever seen on the moon, that I scarcely think it possible to be mistaken in its vapory character. 1
In 1897, an astronomer named Jasper D. Hardy added to the lore in a report in an issue of the British Astronomical Associations Journal: “Now, at various times when studying the floor of Mare Crisium, I have noticed waves of light and shade, so that it was difficult at times to see objects with which I was perfectly familiar. Also clouds have passed over the object I have been viewing. These clouds have been seen by other observers, and are mentioned in Neison. That they belong to the moon there can be no doubt, and I gradually come to the conclusion that vapor of some kind still existed on the moon. I had my surmises verified on one particularly fine night (the best I ever had) when I plainly saw a well-defined cloud pass over the object I was copying.” 2
Another, more anonymous observation was reprinted in the science anthology W.R. Corliss’s Mysterious Universe; a handbook of astronomical anomalies:
Mr. Robert M. Adams has called to our attention a curious lunar observation by Mr. Robert Miles of Woodland, California, an observation rather reminiscent of Mr. Brian Warner’s article on pages 130-131 of our November-December 1955 issue.
Mr. Miles says in part:
“I noticed a flash of white light that caught my eye. At first I thought it could have been a lunar meteor. But it kept flashing on and off… The light was very bright but changed its color to a very bright blue, like an arch light. It was brighter than the sunlit portions that I was looking at.”
Sketches indicate that the object in question lay on the night side of the terminator and perhaps about 100 miles east of the gap in the
NASA photo AS15-M-0954.
The standard model for Crisium’s smooth, dark appearance is that sometime after the major bombardment of the Moon which formed most of its plentiful craters, a large object struck the lunar surface with such force that it made the area within the boundaries of Crisium molten. After some period of time, the area cooled and dark “basaltic lavas” (volcanic rocks) gave the region its dark, pond like appearance. Most of the visible craters in Mare Crisium are most probably smaller (and later) impacts that upset the relatively smooth surface of the “pond.” This would seem to be supported at least in part by the presence of the mascon, which as stated above may be the remnants of the impact event which formed the region. None of this however explains how the region ended up shaped like a hexagon. It should have a rounded outline, like all other “normal” impact basins.
Telescopic view of hexagonal Mare Crisium impact basin.
Mare Crisium is also the location of at least 12 Transient Lunar Phenomenon reports over the years. In 1882, an English mechanic who was also an amateur astronomer named J.G. Jackson made the following observation of Crisium:
Last evening (May 19th) on observing the moon’s slender crescent, about two days old, I was struck with a very peculiar appearance on the westerly side of Mare Crisium, just on, or immediately within, the dark of the ‘terminator. ’ It seemed a curved feathery mist or cloud lying just over the edge of the ‘Mare,’ and against the spur or range of mountains bounding the westerly side of the great valley. It seemed to be divided longitudinally by a faint dark line, and looked not unlike a feather. It must have been more than 100 miles long, by 40 or 50 miles wide. The definition was excellent, and I watched it for nearly an hour, showing it to several friends. In colour and appearance it was so strikingly different from the other illuminated parts, and so different from anything else I have ever seen on the moon, that I scarcely think it possible to be mistaken in its vapory character. 1
In 1897, an astronomer named Jasper D. Hardy added to the lore in a report in an issue of the British Astronomical Associations Journal: “Now, at various times when studying the floor of Mare Crisium, I have noticed waves of light and shade, so that it was difficult at times to see objects with which I was perfectly familiar. Also clouds have passed over the object I have been viewing. These clouds have been seen by other observers, and are mentioned in Neison. That they belong to the moon there can be no doubt, and I gradually come to the conclusion that vapor of some kind still existed on the moon. I had my surmises verified on one particularly fine night (the best I ever had) when I plainly saw a well-defined cloud pass over the object I was copying.” 2
Another, more anonymous observation was reprinted in the science anthology W.R. Corliss’s Mysterious Universe; a handbook of astronomical anomalies:
Mr. Robert M. Adams has called to our attention a curious lunar observation by Mr. Robert Miles of Woodland, California, an observation rather reminiscent of Mr. Brian Warner’s article on pages 130-131 of our November-December 1955 issue.
Mr. Miles says in part:
“I noticed a flash of white light that caught my eye. At first I thought it could have been a lunar meteor. But it kept flashing on and off… The light was very bright but changed its color to a very bright blue, like an arch light. It was brighter than the sunlit portions that I was looking at.”
Sketches indicate that the object in question lay on the night side of the terminator and perhaps about 100 miles east of the gap in the
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