Lichtenberg Crater (HR)

An image of the prominent crater Lichtenberg with a diameter of 20 Km. The crater shows a 1300 mt height difference between crater floor and surrounding lava plain. The actual target of this observation was the 'ghost' crater on the lower left of Lichtenberg. It is almost hidden by overflown lava from Oceanus Procellarum in which it is located. This area is of high geological interest and it was selected for the study of the most recent lunar volcanism. It is thought to contain the youngest basalts on the Lunar Surface, with an age of about 1000 MY. Recent data show that lunar volcanism was active for at least 2000 MY from 4000 MY ago, ceasing at about 2000 MY. In Oceanus Procellarum, it is thought that these basalts are the youngest basalts on the lunar surface with an age of less than 1000 MY. This should be compared with the age of the Moon at about 4500 MY. This crater is named after the German physicist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742-1799) who was professor at the newly formed Goettingen University.

Nota: a nostro parere, questa caption ESA è - sostanzialmente - del tutto incomprensibile ed anche errata. Nel momento in cui si sostiene, infatti, che il vulcanismo lunare è cessato da svariate centinaia di milioni di anni (o anche di più), implicitamente si dice che alcuni grandissimi Astronomi della nostra Storia, da Galileo a Flammarion (i quali hanno assistito a possibili eventi vulcanici lunari classificati come TLP nel famoso NASA Technical Report R-277), erano e sono, in realtà, dei "visionari".

Triste, come sempre; molto triste.