Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
This is a list of named lunar craters. The large majority of these features are impact craters. The crater nomenclature is governed by the International Astronomical Union, and this listing only includes features that are officially recognized by that scientific society.
The majority of named lunar craters are satellite craters: their names consist of the name of a nearby named crater and a capital letter (for example, Copernicus A, Copernicus B, Copernicus C and so on). [17] Lunar crater chains are usually named after a nearby crater. Their Latin names contain the word Catena ("chain").
In addition to mountains, valleys, and impact craters, the following surface features have received names in the Lunar nomenclature, many of them named after a nearby crater or mountain. The listed diameter for these features is the longest dimension that contains the entire geological formation.
Callisto, like all of Jupiter's moons, is named after one of Zeus's many lovers or other sexual partners in Greek mythology. Callisto was a nymph (or, according to some sources, the daughter of Lycaon) who was associated with the goddess of the hunt, Artemis. [26] The name was suggested by Simon Marius soon after Callisto's discovery. [27]
The list of approved names in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature maintained by the International Astronomical Union includes the diameter of the crater and the person the crater is named for. [1] Where a crater formation has associated satellite craters, these are detailed on the main crater description pages.
The huge indent, called the 'imbrue basin,' stretches across 750 miles.
The origin of the Moon's craters as impact features became widely accepted only in the 1960s. This realization allowed the impact history of the Moon to be gradually worked out by means of the geologic principle of superposition. That is, if a crater (or its ejecta) overlaid another, it must be the younger.
The formation of one water molecule requires the presence of two adjacent hydroxyl groups or a cascade of successive reactions of one oxygen atom with two protons. This could constitute a limiting factor and decreases the probability of water production if the proton density per surface unit is too low.