Mons Huygens Mons Huygens Mons Huygens is the Moon's tallest mountain (but not its highest point). It is about high and is located in the Montes Apenninus. The Montes Apenninus were formed by the impact that created Mare Imbrium. Adjacent is Mons Ampère to the west. Further west is the crater Huxley. The mountain was named after the Dutch astronomer, mathematician and physician Christiaan Huygens, it was officially named by the IAU in 1961. Mons Huygens is high, about the same height as Aeolis Mons located on Mars in the middle of Gale crater, and taller than Mons Hadley located on the
Stability of the Solar System essentially the distance from sun to earth). These are now known as the Kirkwood gaps. Some asteroids were later discovered to orbit in these gaps, but their orbits are unstable and they will eventually break out of the resonance due to close encounters with a major planet. Another common form of resonance in the Solar System is spin–orbit resonance, where the period of spin (the time it takes the planet or moon to rotate once about its axis) has a simple numerical relationship with its orbital period. An example is our own Moon, which is in a 1:1 spin–orbit resonance