Mare Nubium (Latin ''nūbium'', the "sea of clouds") is a

lunar mare The lunar maria (; singular: mare ) are large, dark, basaltic plains on Earth's Moon, formed by ancient asteroid impacts on the far side on the Moon that triggered volcanic activity on the opposite (near) side. They were dubbed , Latin for 'seas' ...

in the Nubium basin on the Moon's near side. The mare is located just to the southeast of

Oceanus Procellarum Oceanus Procellarum ( la, Ōceanus procellārum, lit=Ocean of Storms) is a vast lunar mare on the western edge of the near side of the Moon. It is the only one of the lunar maria to be called an "Oceanus" (ocean), due to its size: Oceanus Proc ...

Formation

The basin containing Mare Nubium is believed to have been part of the

Pre-Nectarian The pre-Nectarian period of the lunar geologic timescale runs from 4.533 billion years ago (the time of the initial formation of the Moon) to 3.920 billion years ago, when the Nectaris Basin was formed by a large impact. It is followed by the Necta ...

system. The mare material is of the

Imbrian The Imbrian is a lunar geologic period divided into two epochs, the Early and Late. Early Imbrian In the lunar geologic timescale, the Early Imbrian epoch occurred from 3,850 million years ago to about 3,800 million years ago. It overlaps the en ...

and

Eratosthenian The Eratosthenian period in the lunar geologic timescale runs from 3,200 million years ago to 1,100 million years ago. It is named after the crater Eratosthenes, which displays characteristics typical of craters of this age, including a surface ...

age. Bullialdus crater, a prominent feature on the west side of the mare, is of

age. Other features within the mare include Pitatus on the southern margin and Guericke bounding the mare to the north. Opelt,

Gould Gould may refer to: People * Gould (name), a surname Places United States * Gould, Arkansas, a city * Gould, Colorado, an unincorporated community * Gould, Ohio, an unincorporated community * Gould, Oklahoma, a town * Gould, West Virginia, a ...

, Kies, Nicollet,

Wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...

Birt Birt is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Charlie Birt (born 1942), Canadian politician * Fred Birt (1886–1956), Welsh rugby union player * Jill Birt (), keyboardist in Australian band The Triffids * John Birt (footballer) ...

, and Rupes Recta (the Straight Wall) lie within the mare.

Names

Like most of the other maria on the Moon, Mare Nubium was named by

Giovanni Riccioli Giovanni Battista Riccioli, Society of Jesus, SJ (17 April 1598 – 25 June 1671) was an Italian astronomer and a Catholic church, Catholic priest in the Jesuit order. He is known, among other things, for his experiments with pendulums and with f ...

, whose 1651 nomenclature system has become standardized. Previously, William Gilbert had included it among the Continens Meridionalis ("Southern Continent") in his map of ''c''.1600, and Michael Van Langren had labelled it the Mare Borbonicum (after the

House of Bourbon The House of Bourbon (, also ; ) is a European dynasty of French origin, a branch of the Capetian dynasty, the royal House of France. Bourbon kings first ruled France and Navarre in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Spanis ...

) in his 1645 map.

Exploration

The first released images from the

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is a NASA robotic spacecraft currently orbiting the Moon in an eccentric polar mapping orbit. Data collected by LRO have been described as essential for planning NASA's future human and robotic missions t ...

in 2009 were of the lunar highlands 200 km south of Mare Nubium.

News

In September 2013, Spanish astronomers observed and recorded an impact event when a large rock hit the lunar surface in Mare Nubium.

References

{{Lunar maria Nubium Nubium Nubium Nubium