Ariadaeus is a small, bowl-shaped
lunar
Lunar most commonly means "of or relating to the Moon".
Lunar may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Lunar'' (series), a series of video games
* "Lunar" (song), by David Guetta
* "Lunar", a song by Priestess from the 2009 album ''Prior t ...
impact crater
An impact crater is a depression (geology), depression in the surface of a solid astronomical body formed by the hypervelocity impact event, impact of a smaller object. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal c ...
on the western shores of
Mare Tranquillitatis
Mare Tranquillitatis (Latin for Sea of Tranquillity or Sea of Tranquility) is a lunar mare that sits within the Tranquillitatis basin on the Moon. It contains Tranquility Base, the first location on another celestial body to be visited by huma ...
. It lies to the north of the crater
Dionysius
The name Dionysius (; ''Dionysios'', "of Dionysus"; ) was common in classical and post-classical times. Etymologically it is a nominalized adjective formed with a -ios suffix from the stem Dionys- of the name of the Greek god, Dionysus, parallel ...
, and to the west-southwest of
Arago. The crater is joined along the northeast rim by the slightly smaller Ariadaeus A, and the two form a double-crater. Its diameter is 10.4 km.
This crater marks the eastern extent of the
rille
Rille (German for 'groove') is typically used to describe any of the long, narrow depressions in the surface of the Moon that resemble channels. The Latin term is ''rima'', plural ''rimae''. Typically, a rille can be several kilometers w ...
designated
Rima Ariadaeus
Rima Ariadaeus is a linear rille on the lunar surface, situated at coordinates . Measuring approximately 5 km (3.1 mi) in width and spanning a length of 300 km (186.4 mi), it stretches between Mare Tranquillitatis and Mare ...
. This wide rille extends in a nearly straight line to the west-northwest, passing just to the north of the crater
Silberschlag. Other rille systems lie in the vicinity, including the Rimae Ritter to the southeast and Rimae Sosigenes to the northeast.
The crater was named after
Philip III of Macedon
Philip III Arrhidaeus (; BC – 317 BC) was king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia from 323 until his execution in 317 BC. He was a son of King Philip II of Macedon by Philinna of Larissa, and thus an elder half-brother of Alexander th ...
(Arrhidaeus).
[Antonín Rükl, ''Atlas of the Moon'' (Hamlyn, 1991), p. 96.]
Satellite craters
By convention these features are identified on lunar maps by placing the letter on the side of the crater midpoint that is closest to Ariadaeus.
Notes
References
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External links
Lunar Orbiter 2 frame 59 showing Ariadaeus B in high resolution
{{Craters on the Moon: A–B
Impact craters on the Moon