Fermi (crater)
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| Crater characteristics | |
| Coordinates | 19.3° S, 122.6° E |
|---|---|
| Diameter | 183 km |
| Depth | Unknown |
| Colongitude | 240° at sunrise |
| Eponym | Enrico Fermi |
Fermi is a large lunar crater of the category named a walled plain. It lies on the far side of the Moon and can not be viewed from the Earth. Thus this feature must be viewed from an orbiting spacecraft.
The most notable aspect of this crater is that the large and prominent Tsiolkovskiy crater intrudes into the southeastern rim of Fermi. Unlike Tsiolkovskiy, however, the interior of Fermi is not covered by dark basaltic-lava, and so it is barely distinguishable from the surrounding rugged and battered terrain. If it were located on the near side of the Moon, however, this would be one of the largest visible craters, with a dimension roughly equal to Humboldt crater, lying several hundred kilometers to the west-southwest.
This formation has been significantly eroded and damaged by subsequent impacts, and several notable craters lie across the rim and within the basin. Delporte crater is the most notable of these, lying across the northwest rim. Just to the east and inside the northern rim of Fermi is Litke crater. The smaller crater Xenophon is centered across the southern rim. In the southern half of the floor are the Diderot and Babakin craters.
The rim, where it survives, is the most intact along the northern half. The southern half of the rim has been nearly obliterated, forming an irregular stretch of ground. The interior floor of Fermi has been modified by the creation of Tsiolkovskiy, with striations in the northeastern floor of Fermi, and parallel ridges along the western rim of Tsiolkovskiy. The remaining sections of the floor is somewhat more level, although pock-marked by myriads of tiny craterlets. The central section of the floor in particular has several clustered crater formations.
[edit] References
- Andersson, L. E.; Whitaker, E. A., (1982). NASA Catalogue of Lunar Nomenclature. NASA RP-1097.
- Blue, Jennifer (July 25, 2007). Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS. Retrieved on 2007-08-05.
- Bussey, B.; Spudis, P. (2004). The Clementine Atlas of the Moon. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-81528-2.
- Cocks, Elijah E.; Cocks, Josiah C. (1995). Who's Who on the Moon: A Biographical Dictionary of Lunar Nomenclature. Tudor Publishers. ISBN 0-936389-27-3.
- McDowell, Jonathan (July 15, 2007). Lunar Nomenclature. Jonathan's Space Report. Retrieved on 2007-10-24.
- Menzel, D. H.; Minnaert, M.; Levin, B.; Dollfus, A.; Bell, B. (1971). "Report on Lunar Nomenclature by The Working Group of Commission 17 of the IAU". Space Science Reviews 12: 136.
- Moore, Patrick (2001). On the Moon. Sterling Publishing Co.. ISBN 0-304-35469-4.
- Price, Fred W. (1988). The Moon Observer's Handbook. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521335000.
- Rükl, Antonín (1990). Atlas of the Moon. Kalmbach Books. ISBN 0-913135-17-8.
- Webb, Rev. T. W. (1962). Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes, 6th revision, Dover. ISBN 0-486-20917-2.
- Whitaker, Ewen A. (1999). Mapping and Naming the Moon. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-62248-4.
- Wlasuk, Peter T. (2000). Observing the Moon. Springer. ISBN 1852331933.
[edit] External links
The following are L&PI topographic maps that show portions of the Fermi walled-plain.
- LTO-101B1 Litke — northern half
- LTO-101B4 Babakin — southern half
