Recently NASA released an image taken by the LRO of the central peak of crater Tycho, a feature of the Moon that is clearly visible in the southern portion of the side facing the Earth. The peak rises 1.25 miles above the floor of the crater.
The image of the peak was taken during local sunrise, so shadows are clearly seen cast by the peak across the crater floor. The detail of the peak complex, which is about 9.3 miles wide, is breathtaking. Seeing the image, one gets the sense that the Moon is not some strange, alien place (though in fact it is for various reasons).
While the central peak of Tycho is not the tallest mountain on the moon, it is now the most spectacularly imaged. Seeing in detail for the first time, one can imagine future space explorers challenging its immensity, hampered by space suits, but assisted by one sixth gravity to climb the peak from the floor of the crater, moving slowly up its side with pylons and lines, until reaching the summit.
From the summit of the central peak of Tycho, one would perhaps be able to see the crater in full, stretching 51 miles in diameter from rim to rim. The rim itself is higher than the central peak, stretching up 2.92 miles.
Crater Tycho itself is a relatively young feature on the Moon, having been created by an asteroid strike that occurred over 100 million years ago. Thus the crater is still sharply defined, having not been worn down by too many subsequent meteor strikes. There are signs of some volcanic activity, likely caused by the heat resulting in the original asteroid strike.
Tycho was named after the famous 16th century Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe.
Tycho is featured in literature and film quite a bit. It is most famous for being the site of the famous monolith that lunar explorers excavate in the film "2001: A Space Odyssey. The film "Star Trek: First Contact" mentions a city located at the crater Tycho in the 24th century.
Tycho was proposed as a possible landing site for one of the Apollo lunar landing missions. It was certainly geologically interesting enough to send a pair of astronauts with hammers and shovels to bring back samples from one of the largest and youngest craters on the lunar surface. While had some of the latter Apollo missions might have landed on Tycho, the risk of sending a mission to a feature so far away from the lunar equator was considered too great.
Thus Tycho still awaits the trod of human boot step, as it has for over a hundred million years since it was born in the white hot heat of the asteroid impact. The image of the central peak is so tantalizing. Tycho seems so near in it. And yet it is so far.
Mark R. Whittington is the author of Children of Apollo and The Last Moonwalker. He has written on space subjects for a variety of periodicals, including The Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, USA Today, the L.A. Times, and The Weekly Standard.
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