Plato

Two versions of the same Lunar photograph that I captured from our backyard through my 127mm refractor using the video format on my Canon 600D DSLR. The version on the right has an enhanced colour saturation which highlights the changes in the reflection of sunlight from a range of minerals in the different rocks that makeup the Lunar surface.

Image of the Crater Plato taken from Lunar Orbiter 4.

My image shows the crater Plato, center left, and the 'Alpine valley', the broad stripe slightly above and to its right.

Plato is the lava filled impact crater on the Moon, located on the north eastern shore of the Mare Imbrium  and at the western end of the Montes Alpes mountain chain. To the south is a smaller chain of mountains named Montes Teneriffe  and to the north lies the wide sweep of Mare Frigoris.  Plato was created approximately 3.84 billion years ago and only just post-dates the absolutely massive impact which created Mare Imbrium.  Of course this Mare or 'sea' is a waterless desert of solidified lava which is either hot or very cold depending upon whether it is being bathed in sunlight or cloaked in shadow.  Inside Plato's 2 kilometre high jagged walls the crater floor has been flooded with a particularly dark lava (having a low albedo)  which makes it an obvious lunar feature when viewed from the earth with low power binoculars. There is no visible central peak but there are a number of later and small impact craterlets which can be seen in the image from Lunar Orbiter 4. Plato is basically circular but from earth and  in my image, it appears oval because of perspective foreshortening.  Over the years the crater has been the location for a number of 'transient lunar phenomena' or TLPs although these are generally considered visual affects related to changes in seeing and the angle of illumination by the sun. The crater is large and has an approximate diameter of 109 kilometres or 67.7 miles.

Although the moon has been observed and extensively studied for many years, we are still discovering new facts about it.  Recent data recorded by a number of satellites in orbit around the moon, have led astronomers and geologists to revise their views on the moon's geological activity. It is now believed that there has been volcanic activity on the moon as relatively recent as two million years and that the moons core is hotter than was originally considered.  It is believed that tidal affects caused by the earth, as the moon and the earth rotate about their common point of axis, acts to stress the moon's core and mantle and thus heat it. This is similar to the more extreme heating and volcanic activity experienced by the moon Io as the result of tidal affects created by the massive planet Jupiter.

Credits: NASA, Wikipedia and James Stuby