The Woman on Cassini's Moon
On a great map of the Moon made in 1679, the astronomer Cassini drew a woman's face on a headland at the edge of the Bay of Rainbows.
What was reported
In 1679, the astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini, working at the Paris Observatory, published one of the finest early maps of the Moon. On a cape called Promontorium Heraclides, at the edge of the curved bay Sinus Iridum, the Bay of Rainbows, he included a small profile of a woman's face with flowing hair.
Observers with telescopes can still see her when the Sun is low over that part of the Moon, a few days before full Moon: a woman's head seems to look out across the bay. She's known as the Moon Maiden.
Explanations offered
The Moon Maiden is a trick of light and shadow on the hills of the cape, seen only when the Sun is at the right angle. Some have suggested Cassini drew in his wife's face as a private tribute. Like the Man in the Moon, it shows how readily we see faces in random shapes.
- When
- Drawn in 1679
- Where
- Promontorium Heraclides, Sinus Iridum, on the Moon
- Witnesses
- Giovanni Domenico Cassini, and observers with telescopes since
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.