Sinus Iridum
Location: ·
The 'Bay of Rainbows' — at sunrise its mountain rim gleams as the famous 'golden handle'.
Type
Mare
Diameter
249 km
Position
45.0°N 31.7°W
Name approved
1935
The bay is a crater 249 km across that was breached and drowned: the Montes Jura are its surviving rim, and the side facing Mare Imbrium is simply gone, flooded to the same level as the mare beyond. There is no wall there to have been destroyed - the lava rose above it.
Chang'e 3 landed just east of the bay in December 2013 with the Yutu rover, and its ground-penetrating radar profiled several distinct basalt layers beneath the surface, confirming episodic filling in this part of Imbrium.
Sunrise
Sunset
Sunrise and sunset on Sinus Iridum
| Event | Time | Lit |
|---|---|---|
| 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: Sinus Iridum
Wikipedia: Sinus Iridum