Mare Frigoris (Latin ''frīgōris'', the "Sea of Cold") is a

lunar mare The lunar maria ( ; mare ) are large, dark, basaltic plains on Earth's Moon, formed by lava flowing into ancient impact basins. They are less reflective than the "highlands" as a result of their iron-rich composition, and hence appear dark to ...

in the far north 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 located in the outer rings of the Procellarum basin, just north of

Mare Imbrium Mare Imbrium (Latin ''imbrium'', the "Sea of Showers" or "Sea of Rains") is a vast lunar mare, 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 collision ...

, 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 ...

. It is just north of the dark crater

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

. The basin material surrounding the mare is of the Lower Imbrian

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 b ...

, while the eastern mare material is of the Upper Imbrian 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.

Name

Like most of the other maria on the Moon, Mare Frigoris was named by Giovanni Riccioli, 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, Petrus Gassendus; 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 a ...

called it the Boreum Mare ('Northern Sea').Ewen A. Whitaker, ''Mapping and Naming the Moon'' (Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 33. North Pole-Mare Frigoris Si-Castagno-Ferruggia

North Pole-Mare Frigoris Si-Castagno-Ferruggia

Research

The second Hakuto-R mission from Japanese private spaceflight company ispace plans to land at a Mare Frigoris site in June 2025.

In popular culture

Mare Frigoris on a map of the lunar nearside with major maria and craters labelled. This area of the Moon featured prominently in 'Behemoth', the second episode of the 1973 BBC science fiction mini-series '' Moonbase 3''. Mare Frigoris was intended to be the original landing site of the fictionalised version of Apollo 15 in the

Apple TV+ Apple TV+ is an American subscription over-the-top streaming service owned by Apple. The service launched on November 1, 2019, and it offers a selection of original production film and television series called Apple Originals. The service w ...

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

Lunar south pole The lunar south pole is the southernmost point on the Moon. It is of interest to scientists because of the lunar water, occurrence of water ice in Crater of eternal darkness, permanently shadowed areas around it. The lunar south pole region fea ...

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
-

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is a NASA robotic spacecraft currently orbiting the Moon in an eccentric Polar orbit, polar mapping orbit. Data collected by LRO have been described as essential for planning NASA's future human and robotic ...

page and images {{lunar maria Frigoris Frigoris Frigoris