4 replies to this topic

[Marco Campaniello]

Beneath the silent beauty of the Moon, the craters Theophilus and Cyrillus stand as eternal monuments, witnesses to a distant and mysterious past. Theophilus, with a diameter of about 100 km, is one of the most impressive and fascinating formations on the near side of the Moon. Its steep and jagged rim emerges with a grandeur that calls to mind the vastness of the universe. With a depth of more than 4,000 meters, Theophilus endured the impact of an asteroid that forever carved its surface in an eternal sign. Its characteristic "terraced" structure on the inner walls tells of a turbulent past, where the violence of the impact created a landscape that still seems to vibrate with cosmic energy.
Not far away, Cyrillus, with a diameter of about 95 km, appears as a gentler but equally mysterious companion. Its rim, less jagged but still well-defined, encloses an interior characterized by a relatively flat bottom, with a slight depression in the center. Cyrillus's surface is dotted with a series of smaller craters, signs of an equally eventful, though perhaps quieter than its neighbor. Its depth is less pronounced but no less captivating, averaging about 2,500 meters. Cyrillus has the appearance of a reservoir of silence and beauty, a place where moonlight dances gently between its shadows, revealing details hidden from the most curious eyes.
Both craters are located in the eastern hemisphere of the Moon, and their visual encounter is an embrace between the past and eternity, a testament to how the Moon has kept these secrets within its rocks. Theophilus and Cyril, despite their solitary grandeur, tell the story of a connection beyond time, where mystery and science merge into a delicate cosmic poem.
I thank Uwe Meiling who photographed this lunar area!
Link to the model viewable from Android mobile phone or PC
http://moon3d.alterv...l_3d/index.html
Model created by superimposing the image captured by the Uwe Meiling telescope - Zeiss Cassegrain 400/6638mm, Adc Gutekunst, Asi 178mm, and the DEM data collected by the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) and the SELenological and Engineering Explorer (SELENE) Kaguya Teams
https://youtu.be/GX7...4ov-4GGm2hKkNnH

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Edited by Marco Campaniello, 20 March 2025 - 05:52 PM.

[quilty]

good one. Never saw it that detailed.
This then is sort of an European collaboration at astronomy

Edited by quilty, 20 March 2025 - 05:43 AM.

[Marco Campaniello]

Thanks, yes a collaboration with international astronomy, not only European

[CHnuschti]

Very nice modeling. Cyrillus did obviously already exist at the impact "for" Theophilus.

 

Nice Video transposing well the 3-party central peak of Theophilus as it can be seen well also in small gear. IMO the very strinking feature is, how much deeper Theophilus is, compared to Cyrillus, while the size / diameter is the same. It can be seen that Cyrillus was less deeper, since its central peak still stands out some 2000m, although a bit worn down, from the floor fill, comparable to the picture in Theophilus, standing out 2500m. Opposite, the floor levels difference is around 3000m.

 

Might be due to different material of the impactor. Another plausible hypothesis would be that the impact for Cyrillus did loosen the structure around, so the Theophilus impactor then was able to eject more already ruptured material. Another feature is also evident IMO, the Theophilus impact lifted the whole floor of Cyrillus into a tilted plane upwards towards Theophilus, goes conform with the dynamics of an impact i would think.

 

regards

Edited by CHnuschti, 20 March 2025 - 06:03 AM.

[Marco Campaniello]

excellent considerations!