Close-up of a Moon crater

Tycho is a crater on the moon that has a little "island" peak in its center. If you're feeling immature, it looks a bit like a breast. With that analogy in mind, what you're looking at here is a close-up of the nipple—the very tip-top of Tycho's central peak. The photo was taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

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Anonymous

Kids, I think that is a central peak uplift, not a boulder.

In an impact crater, the impact compresses the ground, in some cases, after the impact, the ground bounces back, leading to a “central peak uplift”…which is what I think you are seeing.

In a caldera (descriptive term involving volcanos): “If volcanic activity continues, the centre of the caldera may be uplifted in the form of a resurgent dome such as is seen at Cerro GalÃ¡n, Lake Toba…”

As I recall, back in the day scientists used to argue about whether such things were volcanos or central peak uplifts on the moon. Been years since I considered it though.
- holtt
  
  Anon sez…
  
  Kids, I think that is a central peak uplift, not a boulder.
  
  Well, “Dad”, not to get all “tit for tat” on you but I think it’s a central peak uplift with a large boulder on top of it!
Chas44

Never thought Rule 34 and a photo of the moon would go together.
Anonymous

Isn’t this the place where they found the Monolith in 2001?
- Anonymous
  
  Yes. And the moon base was in “relatively near by” Clavius crater
RebNachum

Oooh. Not good. This will set back plans for my lunar Stanley Kubrick memorial: http://metaphorager.net/lunar-update-back-to-the-redrawing-board/
daen

Tycho? A breast? Seriously? I can honestly say that I have never contemplated lunar topography with the intent of sexual arousal.

Now, if it were Uranus …
katkins

Immature? It’s pareidolia!
simonbarsinister

If the shape that most closely describes this geological formation is a human breast, what is immature about that?

Do you also giggle when someone says ‘doody’?
OldBrownSquirrel

That mountain reminds me of Grand Teton, and that one over there looks a bit like a mastodon’s tooth.
futnuh

Immature? My father was tasked with doing the grocery shopping one day so I added “areola” to his list – told him it was a special kind of muesli that he’d probably have to ask about.
Anonymous

If you squint your eyes real hard and you’ve never seen a breast before.
Anonymous

If the crater is analogous to a breast, then that means the areola is concave while the nipple itself remains typical. So let’s say you get together with a girl and she takes her bra off, revealing a couple of perky Death Stars. What do you do when you see something like that? Do you leave immediately and possibly emigrate to the other side of the planet, or do you try to drink cognac out of them? Does that qualify as kinky? If you push her navel, will her areolas pop back out? Why or why not?

The moon is very strange, Maggie, and you’ve created a lot more questions for me. Now I won’t be able to look up at the moon at night without getting the weirdest boner.
Michael Smith

There is nothing little about the “little “island” peak” in the middle of Tycho crater. It is 2.5 km high.
hamakiman

Immature feelings noted.
treacle

Why is NASA looking at the Tycho crater? Have they found a magnetic anomaly there or something?
Anonymous

I had never thought of Tyco crater as a breast. Now i wont be be able to think of it any other way. Maggie forever boobified the moon for me.
manicbassman

hmmm if you follow through that link, you’ll find a higher rez vertical overhead of the boulder… and if they can produce an image of that boulder so well, then why haven’t they pointed the camera at the lunar landing sites? the descent stages are a few metres in diameter and should show up well using that camera…
- holtt
  
  maniacbassman, that boulder is 120 meters across. The lander would just be a few pixels, and photos at that resolution have already been done.
- Bubba
  
  Because we know quite well what the lunar landing site looks like, having been there. No?
- Anonymous
  
  LROC has imaged the Apollo landing sites already:
  
  http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/apollosites.html
Anonymous

Well at least there isn’t any hair sticking out of it.
Anonymous

i know this sounds really hokey but as a guy who devoured those 1950′s space books as a kid back then to live to see a photo like that just about brings a tear to my eye.and who cares about the jet packs and meals in a pill…
Anonymous

looks like a /what/????!!!

I don’t see it. And I am quite immature, thank you very much.

To me, it looks like a hyena dancing on top of an ice cream cone while gargling the words to La Marseilles in Swahili.