What are Some Prominent Features of the Moon?
The most prominent features of the Moon are its maria, Latin for “seas”, because ancient astronomers believed they were actually full of water. We know now that they are basaltic lavas, ejected from volcanoes when the moon was much more geologically active. These lavas flowed into existing impact basins (except for a few exceptions) and produced the maria we see so clearly today. Other obvious features on the Moon are its impact craters, left from billions of years of impacts unguarded by an atmosphere. Two of the largest impact craters are Daedalus and Copernicus. Many of the Moon’s craters derive from a period called the Late Heavy Bombardment, which occurred approximately four billion years ago, when much of the stray asteroids in the solar system were still aggregating into larger bodies and finding stable orbits. The Moon is also conspicuous in its largeness. Aside from being the most obvious thing in the night sky, the Moon (also known as Luna) is the fifth largest natural satell
