Surf Wiki
Save to docs
general/escarpments-on-the-moon

From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Rupes Recta

Linear fault on the Moon

Linear fault on the Moon

Rupes Recta is a linear fault on the Moon, in the southeastern part of the Mare Nubium at . The name is Latin for straight cliff, although it is more commonly called the Straight Wall. This is the best-known escarpment on the Moon, and is a popular target for amateur astronomers.

Taken with Olympus digital camera using 4.5" telescope. Since this is a telescopic view, this image is inverted.

When the sun illuminates the feature at an oblique angle at about day 8 of the Moon's orbit, the Rupes Recta casts a wide shadow that gives it the appearance of a steep cliff. The fault has a length of 110 km, a typical width of 2–3 km, and a height of 240–300 m. Thus although it appears to be a vertical cliff in the lunar surface, in actuality the grade of the slope is relatively shallow.

To the west of this escarpment is the crater Birt, which is about 17 km in diameter. Also to the west is the Rima Birt rille. At the southern end is a group of hills often called the "Stag's-Horn Mountains", although this name is not officially recognized by the IAU.

To the northeast is the crater Alpetragius, and to the east is Thebit.

References

References

  1. North, Gerald. (2007). "Observing the moon: the modern astronomer's guide". Cambridge University Press.
  2. Grego, Peter. (2005). "The moon and how to observe it". Birkhäuser.
  3. Wood, Charles A.. "The Lunar 100". Sky Publishing.
  4. Nathan, Steve A.. "Lunar Club Observing List". Astronomical League.
Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

escarpments-on-the-moon
Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Rupes Recta — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report