Promontorium Heraclides

Annotated Sinus Iridum by LRO; Promontorium Heraclides is labeled at bottom-left.

Promontorium Heraclides is a raised mountainous cape situated in Mare Imbrium on the near side of the Moon. Its selenographic coordinates are 40.3° N, 33.2° W and it is 50 km in diameter. It marks the western edge of the bay of Sinus Iridum.

Promontorium Heraclides is named after Heraclides Ponticus, a Greek philosopher and astronomer. The Soviet lunar probe Luna 17 landed about 30 km from Promontorium Heraclides on November 17, 1970.[1] The land form is depicted as the face of a woman looking across Sinus Iridum in a 1679 lunar map by Giovanni Domenico Cassini; this depiction, of disputed origin, is known as the "Moon Maiden".[2]

References

  1. ↑ Brunier, Serge; Thierry Legault (2006). New Atlas of the Moon. Firefly Books. p. 91. ISBN 978-1-55407-173-9.
  2. ↑ "Map of the moon, 1679". The British Library. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
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