Beethoven Basin topography JMARS Colorized Shade 2km

Beethoven is a crater at latitude 20°S, longitude 124°W on Mercury. It is 630 km in diameter and was named after

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

. It is the eleventh largest named impact crater in the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...

and the third largest on Mercury (after Caloris and

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...

). Unlike many basins of similar size on 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 ...

, such as the Orientale Basin, Beethoven is not multi-ringed. Remnant ejecta blankets around parts of the Beethoven are subdued in appearance and their margins poorly defined in places. The crater wall ( rim) of Beethoven is buried by its ejecta blanket and by plains materials and is barely visible. The floor of the basin is covered with intermediate smooth plains material, which has the same reflectance as the exterior intermediate terrain. However, there are no wrinkle ridges or

graben In geology, a graben () is a depression (geology), depressed block of the Crust (geology), crust of a planet or moon, bordered by parallel normal faults. Etymology ''Graben'' is a loan word from German language, German, meaning 'ditch' or 't ...

inside the basin like those in Caloris. Spudis and Prosser have suggested that Beethoven may possibly be late c3 in age or as old as early c2, which means that it is older than the Caloris Basin. It is currently considered to be Tolstojan in age.Denevi, B. W., Ernst, C. M., Prockter, L. M., and Robinson, M. S., 2018. The Geologic History of Mercury. In ''Mercury: The View After

MESSENGER Messenger, Messengers, The Messenger or The Messengers may refer to: People * Courier, a person or company that delivers messages, packages, or mail * Messenger (surname) * Bicycle messenger, a bicyclist who transports packages through cities * M ...

'' edited by Sean C. Solomon, Larry R. Nittler, and Brian J. Anderson. Cambridge Planetary Science. Chapter 6, Table 6.3. The depth of Beethoven is estimated to be from the

stereo Stereophonic sound, commonly shortened to stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configurat ...

derived digital elevation models based on '' Mariner 10'' images of the planet. This is significantly less than the depth of lunar basins of the similar size indicating that Beethoven probably has relaxed from its post impact shape. There is also a broad topographic rise in the north–west margin of Beethoven. A scarp that is roughly parallel with the west rim of Beethoven is known as Duyfken Rupes. The crater Bello lies within the east half of Beethoven, and the crater Sayat-Nova lies across the southern rim. The large, fresh crater Bartók is to the southwest of Beethoven.

Notes

References

{{Ludwig van Beethoven Impact craters on Mercury Beethoven quadrangle