Aitken (crater)

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Crater characteristics
Aitken from Apollo 15. NASA photo.
Coordinates	16.8° S, 173.4° E
Diameter	135 km
Depth	Unknown
Colongitude	187° at sunrise
Eponym	Robert Aitken

Aitken is a large lunar impact crater that lies on the far side of the Moon. It is located to the southeast of the Heaviside crater, and north of the unusual Van de Graaff crater formation. Attached to the southwest rim is the Vertregt crater. To the southeast is the smaller Bergstrand crater.

The inner wall of Aitken is terraced, and varies notably in width with the narrowest portion in the southwest. The crater 'Aitken Z' lies across the inner north wall. Just to the north of the rim is the small crater 'Aitken Z', which is surrounded by an ejecta blanket of lighter albedo material. The interior floor has been resurfaced in the past by a darker albedo lava flow, especially in the southern half. There are also several small crater impacts on the eastern floor, an arcing central ridge line just to the east of the mid-point, and a line of smaller ridges in the western half.

This crater lies along the northern rim of the immense South Pole-Aitken basin, which was named after this crater and the southern lunar pole, the two extreme points of the feature.

The Russian probe Luna-Glob is slated to land in Aitken crater in 2012 in order to search for signs of frozen water.