Peary (crater)
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| Crater characteristics | |
| Coordinates | 88.6° N, 33.0° E |
|---|---|
| Diameter | 73 km |
| Depth | Unknown |
| Colongitude | 25° at sunrise |
| Eponym | Robert Peary |
Peary is the closest large lunar impact crater to the lunar north pole. At this latitude the crater interior receives little sunlight, and parts of the southern floor remain permanently cloaked in shadow. From the Earth the crater appears on the northern lunar limb, and is seen from the side.
The crater is nearly circular, with an outward bulge along the northeast rim. There is a gap in the southwest rim, where it joins a slightly smaller worn crater formation. The outer rim of Peary crater is worn and eroded, creating a rugged mountainous ring that produces long shadows across the crater floor.
The crater floor is relatively flat, but marked by several small craterlets, particularly in the eastern half. The southern third of the interior remains cloaked in shadows, and so its features can not be readily discerned.
The worn and lava-flooded crater Byrd lies close to the southern rim of Peary. To the northwest, about a fourth the way around the lunar pole, is the larger Hermite crater. On the opposite side of the pole, on the far side of the moon, lies the still-larger Rozhdestvenskiy crater.
In 2004, a team led by Dr. Ben Bussey of Johns Hopkins University using images taken by the Clementine mission determined that four mountainous regions on the rim of Peary crater appeared to remain illuminated for the entire Lunar day.[1] These unnamed "mountains of eternal light" are possible due to the Moon's extremely small axial tilt, which also gives rise to permanent shadow at the bottoms of many polar craters. No similar regions of eternal light exist at the less-mountainous south pole. Clementine's images were taken during the northern Lunar hemisphere's summer season, and it remains unknown whether these four mountains are shaded at any point during their local winter season.
The northern rim of the Peary crater is considered a likely site for a future Moon base due to this steady illumination, which would provide both a relatively stable temperature and an uninterrupted solar power supply. It is also near permanently shadowed areas that may contain some quantity of frozen water.
[edit] References
- ^ McKee, Maggie. "Sunny spot picked out for future lunar base", New Scientist, April 13, 2005. Retrieved on 2007-09-11.
- 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.
