The Freundlich-Sharonov Basin is a

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 ...

impact basin An impact crater is a depression in the surface of a solid astronomical body formed by the hypervelocity impact of a smaller object. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal collapse, impact craters typically h ...

on the far side of the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

. It is named after the younger craters Freundlich near the northwest margin and Sharonov near the southwest margin. It lies east of

Mare Moscoviense ; ) is a lunar mare that sits in the Moscoviense basin. It is one of the very few maria on the far side of the Moon. Geology Like Mare Marginis, this mare appears to be fairly thin. However, it is clearly centered within a large impact basin. ...

basin and northwest of Korolev basin. The basin is not obvious on lunar photographs, although it was discovered from analysis of

Lunar Orbiter The Lunar Orbiter program was a series of five uncrewed lunar orbiter missions launched by the United States in 1966 and 1967. Intended to help select Apollo landing sites by mapping the Moon's surface, they provided the first photographs from ...

photographs. At the center is the small

mare A mare is an adult female horse or other equidae, equine. In most cases, a mare is a female horse over the age of three, and a filly is a female horse three and younger. In Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a female horse more th ...

Lacus Luxuriae, just south of the oblique crater Buys-Ballot. Also at the center is a mass concentration (mascon), or gravitational high. The mascon was first identified by Doppler tracking of the

Lunar Prospector ''Lunar Prospector'' was a spacecraft that orbited the Moon for 19 months in 1998-99. From a low polar orbit, it mapped surface composition including lunar hydrogen deposits, measured magnetic and gravity fields, and studied lunar outgassing e ...

spacecraft. Other craters within the basin include Anderson, Virtanen, Zernike,

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

, and the smaller

Šafařík Šafařík (feminine: Šafaříková) in a Czech surname. Šafárik (feminine: Šafáriková) in a Slovak surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Michal Šafařík (1977–2020), Czech ice hockey player *Pavel Jozef Šafárik (1795–18 ...

Morse Morse may refer to: People * Morse (surname) * Morse Goodman (1917-1993), Anglican Bishop of Calgary, Canada * Morse Robb (1902–1992), Canadian inventor and entrepreneur Geography Antarctica * Cape Morse, Wilkes Land * Mount Morse, Churchi ...

and Spencer Jones are at the margins.

Views

File:Freundlich-Sharonov basin topo.jpg, Topographic map File:Freundlich-Sharonov basin GRAIL gravity.jpg, Gravity map based on

GRAIL The Holy Grail (, , , ) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miraculous healing powers, sometimes providing eternal youth or sustenanc ...

File:Freundlich-Sharonov Basin AS16-M-0719.jpg, View of the west rim of the basin while at the sunset terminator during the

Apollo 16 Apollo 16 (April 1627, 1972) was the tenth human spaceflight, crewed mission in the United States Apollo program, Apollo space program, administered by NASA, and the fifth and penultimate to Moon landing, land on the Moon. It was the second o ...

mission. Spencer Jones is in the lower left, and the spacecraft's

gamma-ray spectrometer A gamma-ray spectrometer (GRS) is an instrument for measuring the distribution (or spectrum—see Gamma spectroscopy#Scintillation detectors, figure) of the intensity of gamma radiation versus the energy of each photon. The study and analysis of ...

is in lower right.

References

{{reflist Impact craters on the Moon Pre-Nectarian