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 Nect ...

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

on the far side 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 ...

. It is named after the younger craters

Freundlich Freundlich is a surname which may refer to: * Bart Freundlich (born 1970), American film director, screenwriter and producer *Herbert Freundlich (1880–1941), German chemist *Irwin Freundlich (1908-1977), US music teacher and academician * Jeff Li ...

near the northwest margin and Sharonov near the southwest margin. It lies east of Mare Moscoviense 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 from 1966 through 1967. Intended to help select Apollo landing sites by mapping the Moon's surface, they provided the first photographs ...

photographs. At the center is the small

mare A mare is an adult female horse or other 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 than f ...

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 the third mission selected by NASA for full development and construction as part of the Discovery Program. At a cost of $62.8 million, the 19-month mission was designed for a low polar orbit investigation of the Moon ...

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

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His '' Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: ...

, and the smaller

Šafařík cs, Šafařík or sk, Šafárik is a Slavic surname. Female version is cs, Šafaříková or sk, Šafáriková. Notable people with the surname include: * Pavel Jozef Šafárik (1795–1861), Slovak philologist, poet, Slavist, literary historia ...

. Morse 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 Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) was an American lunar science mission in NASA's Discovery Program which used high-quality gravitational field mapping of the Moon to determine its interior structure. The two small spacecra ...

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

terminator Terminator may refer to: Science and technology Genetics * Terminator (genetics), the end of a gene for transcription * Terminator technology, proposed methods for restricting the use of genetically modified plants by causing second generation s ...

during the Apollo 16 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 figure) of the intensity of gamma radiation versus the energy of each photon. The study and analysis of gamma-ray spectra for scientific and techni ...

is in lower right.

References

{{reflist Impact craters on the Moon Pre-Nectarian