Apollo is an enormous
impact crater located in the southern
hemisphere on the
far side of the
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width ...
. This formation dwarfs the large crater
Oppenheimer
Oppenheimer is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
In arts and media
* Alan Oppenheimer (born 1930), American film actor
* Andrés Oppenheimer (born 1951), Argentine author and journalist known for his analysis of Latin American p ...
that is located next to the western rim. The crater
Barringer Barringer is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Anthony R. Barringer (1925–2009), Canadian/American geophysicist and inventor
* Daniel Barringer (1860–1929), American geologist best known for proving the ''Meteor Crater'' t ...
lies across the northern wall. To the southeast is the crater
Anders, and
Kleymenov is just to the east of the rim.
Apollo is a double-ringed walled plain (or basin) whose inner ring is roughly half the diameter of the outer wall. Both the outer wall and the interior have been heavily worn and eroded by subsequent impacts, so that significant parts of the outer and inner walls now consist of irregular and incised sections of mountainous arcs.
The interior floor is covered in a multitude of craters of various sizes, some of which have been named for people associated with the
Apollo program or other
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...
projects.
Sections of Apollo's interior have been resurfaced with
lava
Lava is molten or partially molten rock ( magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or ...
, leaving patches of the floor with a lower
albedo than the surroundings. There is a large patch of this
lunar mare in the middle part of the inner ring, which contains some
ray system markings. A long stretch of the mare lies along the southern part of the crater. There is also a smaller section near the western rim.
Prior to formal naming in 1970 by the
IAU, the crater was known as ''Basin XVI''.
File:Apollo basin topo.jpg, Topographic map
File:Apollo basin GRAIL gravity.jpg, Gravity map based on GRAIL
Interior craters
Three craters are named after the crew of
Apollo 8. In the southeast part of Apollo is
Borman crater, named after commander
Frank Borman. Near the southeastern margin of Apollo is
Anders crater, named after
William Anders. On the eastern margin is
Lovell crater, named after
Jim Lovell.
Many craters within and adjacent to the Apollo impact have been named to honor deceased NASA employees.
Dryden is attached to the west-northwestern exterior of the inner ring.
Chaffee is a similar-sized crater that lies partly across the southwest section of the inner ring. Inside the inner ring are the craters
Resnik,
McAuliffe and
Onizuka, and the
Jarvis–
McNair
McNair is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
*Alexander McNair (1775–1826), American politician
*Andrew McNair, ringer of the Liberty Bell
*Arnold McNair, 1st Baron McNair (1885–1975)
*Barbara McNair (1934–2007), African-Ame ...
crater pair. The crater
Smith lies across the northern part of the inner ring.
In 2006 the IAU approved a proposal to name seven interior craters to honor the astronauts killed in the
Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' disaster.
Three of the crater names include the respective astronaut's first initials to distinguish them from the existing craters called
Anderson,
Brown and
Clark
Clark is an English language surname, ultimately derived from the Latin with historical links to England, Scotland, and Ireland ''clericus'' meaning "scribe", "secretary" or a scholar within a religious order, referring to someone who was educat ...
.
References
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External links
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{{Craters on the Moon: C-F
Impact craters on the Moon
Apollo program