Mare Frigoris (Latin ''frīgōris'', the "Sea of Cold") 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 far north of the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

. It is located in the outer rings of the

Procellarum basin 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 Pro ...

, just north of

Mare Imbrium Mare Imbrium (Latin ''imbrium'', the "Sea of Showers" or "Sea of Rains", "Sea of Tears") is a vast lava plain within the Imbrium Basin on the Moon and is one of the larger craters in the Solar System. The Imbrium Basin formed from the colli ...

, and stretches east to north of

Mare Serenitatis Mare Serenitatis (Latin ''serēnitātis'', the "Sea of Serenity") is a lunar mare located to the east of Mare Imbrium on the Moon. Its diameter is . Geology Mare Serenitatis is located within the Serenitatis basin, which is of the Nectarian ep ...

. It is just north of the dark crater

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

. The basin material surrounding the mare is of the

Lower 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 ...

epoch In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured. The moment of epoch is usually decided by ...

, while the eastern mare material is of the

Upper 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 ...

epoch, and the western mare material is of the

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 ...

epoch. Like most of the other maria on the Moon, Mare Frigoris 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 Insula Borealis ("Northern Island") in his map of ''c''.1600, and Michael Van Langren had labelled it the Mare Astronomicum ("Sea of Astronomy") in his 1645 map.

Pierre Gassendi Pierre Gassendi (; also Pierre Gassend, Petrus Gassendi; 22 January 1592 – 24 October 1655) was a French philosopher, Catholic priest, astronomer, and mathematician. While he held a church position in south-east France, he also spent much tim ...

called it the Boreum Mare ('Northern Sea').Ewen A. Whitaker, ''Mapping and Naming the Moon'' (Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 33.

In popular culture

This area of the Moon featured prominently in 'Behemoth', the second episode of the 1973 BBC science fiction mini-series ''

Moonbase 3 ''Moonbase 3'' is a British science fiction television programme that ran for six episodes in 1973. It was a co-production between the BBC, 20th Century Fox and the American ABC network. Created by ''Doctor Who'' producer Barry Letts and sc ...

''. Mare Frigoris was intended to be the original landing site of the fictionalised version of Apollo 15 in the

Apple TV+ Apple TV is a digital media player and microconsole developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is a small network appliance hardware that plays received media data such as video and audio to a television set or external display. Since its secon ...

series For All Mankind, although in the show the crew decided last minute to divert the landing to

Shackleton crater Shackleton is an impact crater that lies at the lunar south pole. The peaks along the crater's rim are exposed to almost continual sunlight, while the interior is perpetually in shadow. The low-temperature interior of this crater functions as a ...

in the

Lunar south pole The lunar south pole is the southernmost point on the Moon, at 90°S. It is of special interest to scientists because of the occurrence of water ice in permanently shadowed areas around it. The lunar south pole region features craters that are ...

upon finding out there is a high concentration of water ice in the area (a

discovery Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discovery ...

not made in reality until the 1990s).

References

External links

* *
Tectonics in Mare Frigoris
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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 ...

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