Mare Nubium

Not to be confused with Sea of Clouds.

Mare Nubium /ˈnjuːbiəm/ (Latin nūbium, the "sea of clouds") is a lunar mare in the Nubium basin on the Moon's near side. The mare is located just to the southeast of Oceanus Procellarum.

Mare Nubium Selenochromatic Image (Si)^[1]

Mare Nubium

Mare Nubium
Coordinates	21.3°S 16.6°W / -21.3; -16.6
Diameter	715 km (444 mi)[2][3]
Eponym	Sea of Clouds

Oblique view of northern Mare Nubium from Apollo 16.

Volcanic feature in Mare Nubium

Formation

The basin containing Mare Nubium is believed to have been part of the Pre-Nectarian system.^[4] The mare material is of the Imbrian and Eratosthenian age.^[5]

Bullialdus crater, a prominent feature on the west side of the mare, is of Eratosthenian age.^[6] Other features within the mare include Pitatus on the southern margin and Guericke bounding the mare to the north. Opelt, Gould, Kies, Nicollet, Wolf, Birt, and Rupes Recta (the Straight Wall) lie within the mare.

Names

Like most of the other maria on the Moon, Mare Nubium was named by Giovanni Riccioli, whose 1651 nomenclature system has become standardized.^[7] Previously, William Gilbert had included it among the Continens Meridionalis ("Southern Continent") in his map of c.1600,^[8] and Michael van Langren had labelled it the Mare Borbonicum (after the House of Bourbon) in his 1645 map.^[9]

Exploration

The first released images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2009 were of the lunar highlands 200 km south of Mare Nubium.^[10]

News

In September 2013, Spanish astronomers observed and recorded an impact event when a large rock hit the lunar surface in Mare Nubium.^[11]