Rankine is a small lunar

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 ...

near the eastern limb of the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

. It lies on the southern floor of the satellite crater Maclaurin B, a 43-kilometer-diameter feature which is located to the southeast of Maclaurin. To the east of Rankine is the crater Gilbert, and directly to the south is von Behring. This is an insignificant, bowl-shaped formation with a negligible interior floor. The crater is circular and symmetrical, and the sloping interior walls are nearly featureless (although they have a slightly higher

albedo Albedo ( ; ) is the fraction of sunlight that is Diffuse reflection, diffusely reflected by a body. It is measured on a scale from 0 (corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation) to 1 (corresponding to a body that reflects ...

than the surrounding

terrain Terrain (), alternatively relief or topographical relief, is the dimension and shape of a given surface of land. In physical geography, terrain is the lay of the land. This is usually expressed in terms of the elevation, slope, and orientati ...

.) It is otherwise indistinguishable from many other comparably sized craters on the Moon.

References

* * * * * * * * * * * * {{refend Impact craters on the Moon