Sinus Aestuum

Sine Aestuum (Latin for bay the heat) is a small, mare -like formation in the central region of the near side of the Moon north of the equator. The name comes from the Italian astronomer Giovanni Riccioli (1598-1671) and was officially adopted in 1935 by the International Astronomical Union.

Description

The dark gray basalt surface of the solidified lava lake has approximately circular shape with diameters of about 290 × 250 km. Its center is at the coordinates 12 ° North and selenographic 7 ° West. To the southwest, the round lowlands sets to the moon equator continues in a similar-looking, slightly larger basalt layer, which is counted on some moon maps to the same formation.

The sine Aestuum is bounded on the north-west from the great crater Eratosthenes, in the north of the lunar Apennines. To the east are the Mare Vaporum and the sine Medii, in the south the mountains to Fra Mauro. In the West, some bumps make the transition to Mare Insularum.

On the western edge ( at Eratosthenes ) the lava, the former Wall level Stadius flooded and turned into a ghost crater. Further south the bottom has a significantly darker color. Near the crater Gambart C is a flat lava dome, which struck near 1966 lunar probe Surveyor 2 on.