The large majority of these features are impact craters. [5] The biggest recorded creation was caused by an impact recorded on March 17, 2013. Somerville is a small lunar impact crater in the eastern part of the Moon. For the volcanic crater in Nevada, see, This term was coined by Soviet explorers of the Moon after beginning of exploration of.

It is considered the brightest of the large formations on the lunar surface, with an albedo nearly double that of most lunar features.

The word crater was adopted from the Greek word for "vessel" (Κρατήρ a Greek vessel used to mix wine and water). The largest crater on the Moon is called South Pole-Aitkin Basin. Robert Hooke in "Micrographia" (1665) proposed two hypotheses for lunar crater formation: one that the craters caused by projectile bombardment from space, the other that they were Many smaller craters inside and near it bear the names of deceased American astronauts, and many craters inside and near Mare Moscoviense bear the names of deceased Soviet cosmonauts.

These successfully accounted for about 99% of all lunar impact craters. 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. However, it is believed that many of the lunar maria were formed by giant impacts, with the resulting depression filled by upwelling lava.

Craters typically will have some or all of the following features: In 1978, Chuck Wood and Leif Andersson of the Lunar & Planetary Lab devised a system of categorization of lunar impact craters.

It is also readily identified when most of the lunar surface is il [15], 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). Scientific opinion as to the origin of craters swung back and forth over the ensuing centuries. This is a list of named lunar craters. Grove Karl Gilbert suggested in 1893 that the Moon's craters were formed by large asteroid impacts. However, it has since been retired. Around 1960, Gene Shoemaker revived the idea.

London: J. Martyn and J. Allestry, 1665. [6] Visible to the naked eye, the impact is believed to be from an approximately 40 kg (88 lb) meteoroid striking the surface at a speed of 90,000 km/h (56,000 mph; 16 mi/s). The largest crater called such is about 290 kilometres (181 mi) across in diameter, located near the lunar South Pole. The following reference sites were also used during the assembly of the crater information. [15], Lunar crater chains are usually named after a nearby crater.

[17], Small craters of special interest (for example, visited by lunar missions) receive human first names (Robert, José, Louise etc.). Beyond a couple of hundred kilometers diameter, the central peak of the TYC class disappear and they are classed as basins. Johann Gottlob Friedrich von Bohnenberger, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_craters_on_the_Moon:_A–B&oldid=972821420, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Crater visible in the foreground of the iconic, This page was last edited on 13 August 2020, at 23:46. The formation of new craters is studied in the lunar impact monitoring program at NASA.

Large craters, similar in size to maria, but without (or with small amount of) dark lava filling, are sometimes called thalassoids.[A][11][12].

[1] Where a crater formation has associated satellite craters, these are detailed on the main crater description pages.

Lunar craters are impact craters on Earth's Moon. «Micrographia: or, Some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses». [16] This tradition comes from Giovanni Battista Riccioli, who started it in 1651. the products of subterranean lunar vulcanism[3]. Evidence collected during the Apollo Project and from unmanned spacecraft of the same period proved conclusively that meteoric impact, or impact by asteroids for larger craters, was the origin of almost all lunar craters, and by implication, most craters on other bodies as well. The competing theories were (a) volcanic eruptions blasting holes in the Moon, (b) meteoric impact, (c) a theory known as the Welteislehre developed in Germany between the two World Wars which suggested glacial action creating the craters. Lunar craters are listed alphabetically on the following partial lists: Locations and diameters of some prominent craters on the near side of the Moon: The following sources were used as references on the individual crater pages. This is a roughly circular, bowl-shaped formation, with the larger but less conspicuous Langrenus H attached to the northwest rim.

It's also among the oldest of the Moon's impact basins and formed just a few hundred million years or so after the Moon itself was formed. "Lunar crater" redirects here. The age of large craters is determined by the number of smaller craters contained within it, older craters generally accumulating more small, contained craters. The red marker on these images illustrates the location of the named crater feature on the near side of the Moon. The list of approved names in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature maintained by the …

The lunar craters are listed in the following subsections. List of people with craters of the Moon named after them, "Using the Moon as a mirror — Hubble to watch transit of Venus in reflected light", "Final Report on NGR 22-007-194, Lunar Nomenclature", Digital Lunar Orbiter Photographic Atlas of the Moon, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_craters_on_the_Moon&oldid=966549208, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 7 July 2020, at 18:37. One of the biggest lunar craters, Apollo, is named after Apollo missions. The crater nomenclature is governed by the International Astronomical Union, and this listing only includes features that are officially recognized by that scientific society.

These were named craters by Schroeter (1791), extending its previous use with volcanoes. Their Latin names contain the word Catena ("chain"). The Moon's surface has many craters, all of which were formed by impacts.[1][2]. The feature is bright enough to be visible to the naked eye, and displays unusually bright features when viewed through a large telescope. He discovered that, contrary to general opinion at that time, the Moon was not a perfect sphere, but had both mountains and cup-like depressions. Galileo built his first telescope in late 1609, and turned it to the Moon for the first time on November 30, 1609.

This is a list of named lunar craters. The moon zoo project within the Zooniverse program aimed to use citizen scientists to map the size and shape of as many craters as possible using data from the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The word crater was adopted from the Greek word for "vessel" (Κρατήρ a Greek vessel used to mix wine and water). Ralph Baldwin in 1949 wrote that the Moon's craters were mostly of impact origin. The smallest craters found have been microscopic in size, found in rocks returned to Earth from the Moon. [9] Dr. Barlow is also creating a new lunar impact crater database similar to Wood and Andersson's, except hers will include all impact craters greater than or equal to five kilometers in diameter and is based on the Clementine spacecraft's images of the lunar surface.

central peak, found only in some craters with a diameter exceeding 26 kilometres (16 mi); this is generally a splash effect caused by the kinetic energy of the impacting object being turned to heat and melting some lunar material. It's about 1,600 miles across (2,500 kilometers). According to David H. Levy, Gene "saw the craters on the Moon as logical impact sites that were formed not gradually, in eons, but explosively, in seconds."[4].

Galileo built his first telescope in late 1609, and turned it to the Moon for the first time on November 30, 1609.

These were named craters by Schroeter (1791), extending its previous use with volcanoes. Where a formation has associated satellite craters, these are detailed on the main crater description pages. [15] Usually they are named after deceased scientists and other explorers. Beginning in 2009 Dr. Nadine G. Barlow of Northern Arizona University began to convert the Wood and Andersson lunar impact-crater database into digital format. The crater nomenclature is governed by the International Astronomical Union, and this listing only includes features that are officially recognized by that scientific society.

[15][16] Besides this, in 1970 twelve craters were named after twelve living astronauts (6 Soviet and 6 American). [14], Craters constitute 95% of all named lunar features. Because of the Moon's lack of water, atmosphere, and tectonic plates, there is little erosion, and craters are found that exceed two billion years in age.

Aristarchus, named after the Greek astronomer Aristarchus of Samos, is a prominent lunar impact crater that lies in the northwest part of the Moon's near side. [17][18] Since 1919, assignment of these names is regulated by the International Astronomical Union. This page was last edited on 15 October 2020, at 12:37.

They used a sampling of craters that were relatively unmodified by subsequent impacts, then grouped the results into five broad categories. In March 2018, the discovery of around 7,000 formerly unidentified lunar craters via convolutional neural network developed at the University of Toronto Scarborough was announced.[7][8].

The large majority of these features are impact craters. [13]

CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "New technique uses AI to locate and count craters on the moon", "New morphometric data for fresh lunar craters", "Proceedings of the Thirteenth General Assembly (Prague, 1967) – excerpts", "Development of a New GIS Database of Lunar Impact Craters", "Categories for Naming Features on Planets and Satellites", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lunar_craters&oldid=983647627, CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown, Articles needing additional references from November 2010, All articles needing additional references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, a surrounding area with materials splashed out of the ground when the crater was formed; this is typically lighter in shade than older materials due to exposure to solar radiation for a lesser time, raised rim, consisting of materials ejected but landing very close by, crater wall, the downward-sloping portion of the crater, crater floor, a more or less smooth, flat area, which as it ages accumulates small craters of its own. He discovered that, contrary to general opinion at that time, the Moon was not a perfect sphere, but had both mountains and cup-like depressions.

Robert Hooke.

For example, Catena Davy is situated near the crater Davy.[15][19]. It lies to the east of the prominent crater Langrenus, and was designated Langrenus J before being given a name by the IAU.