Selenology: Around the Lunar Edge

"This is the most spectacular find of the Lunar Orbiter program," said Geologist John McCauley of the U.S. Geological Survey. "If it were fully visible on the side of the moon facing the earth," said University of Arizona Astronomer Gerard Kuiper, "a whole mythology would have been built up about it." Both scientists were referring to the Orientale Basin, which is located on the extreme western edge of the visible face of the moon and affords only a meager side view to earthbound astronomers. Photographed head-on for the first time by NASA's...