Astronomy:Mare Desiderii
 Luna 3 image of the far side |
left|thumb|A stamp from the Soviet Union showing a map based on the Luna 3 images.
Mare Desiderii /dɛsɪˈdɪəriaɪ/ (Latin dēsīderiī, the "Sea of Desires") was an area of the Moon named after Luna 3 returned the first pictures of the far side in 1959.[1]
Early publications of the Luna 3 image referred to the Mare as Mechta, the Russian word for dream.[2] Mechta was an alternate name for the Luna 1 spacecraft.[3] The feature was also called the Dream Sea[4] or the Sea of Dreams.[5] Other references called it Mare Somnii, Latin for the Sea of Dreams.[6]
It was later determined to be an optical illusion in the low quality image. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) removed the name from the list of lunar nomenclature in 1960.[7] Instead this area includes a smaller mare, Mare Ingenii (Sea of Ingenuity or Cleverness), and other dark craters.[8]
The naming of this and other features by the Soviet Union was considered controversial at the time. The newly named places on Soviet lunar maps were perceived as an extension of Soviet territory.[7] The IAU was then given the responsibility for naming newly discovered features.[9]
References
- ↑ Wilkinson, John (26 October 2010). "Geological History of the Moon". The Moon in Close-up. Patrick Moore's Practical Astronomy Series. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. pp. 69–104. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-14805-7_3. ISBN 978-3-642-14804-0.
- ↑ "Photos Show Moon's Hidden Side". Los Angeles Times. 27 October 1959. "'A sea called the Mechta (dream) sprawls out in the southern hemisphere on the very edge of the moon's invisible side,' Tass said."
- ↑ "Luna 1". NASA. 28 October 2022. https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1959-012A.
- ↑ "Moon Pictures Herald Planet Study". Washington Star. 27 October 1959.
- ↑ Caruthers, Osgood (27 October 1959). "Back of Moon 'Seen' First Time". New York Times. "A huge area on the southeastern rim of the globe is called Sea of Dreams."
- ↑ Posin, Dan Q. (8 April 1962). "Destination Moon". Chicago Daily Tribune.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Iina Kohonen (1 July 2017). Picturing the Cosmos: A Visual History of Early Soviet Space Endeavor. Intellect Books. ISBN 978-1-78320-744-2. OCLC 1013591364. https://books.google.com/books?id=fbirDwAAQBAJ&pg=PR74.
- ↑ "Luna 3". NASA. n.d.. https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1959-008A.
- ↑ "World glimpses far side of the Moon". BBC. 26 October 1959. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/26/newsid_4045000/4045913.stm.
- Stooke, Philip J. (2007). The International Atlas of Lunar Exploration. Cambridge University Press. pp. 17. ISBN 978-0-521-81930-5.
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