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Nyidawa

Rupes Recta

Location: ·

The 'Straight Wall' — a 116-km fault that appears as a stark shadow line right after sunrise.

Type
Scarp
Diameter
116 km
Position
21.7°S 7.7°W
Name approved
1961

Rupes Recta is a normal fault with about 300 metres of throw over 116 km of length, spread across a face 2 to 3 km wide. The slope is therefore around seven degrees - a ramp, not a wall, despite the name it is usually given.

Its appearance reverses over a lunation. The high side is to the east, so under morning light the face is turned away from the Sun and the scarp reads as a dark line; after full Moon the light comes from the west, falls directly on the same face, and it reads as a bright one. Nothing about the feature changes, only which side of it the Sun is on.

Sunrise

12 hours after sunrise on Rupes Recta

Sunset

12 hours before sunset on Rupes Recta

Sunrise and sunset on Rupes Recta

EventTimeLit
Computing…
  • Sunrise / Sunset: at the feature's centre (IAU Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature).
  • Lit: the illuminated fraction of the Moon's disc at that moment.

Further info

Official record from the IAU Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature: Rupes Recta

Wikipedia: Rupes Recta