Blancanus is a 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 ...

located in the rugged southern region 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 ...

, to the southwest of the walled plain Clavius. To the northwest lies the comparably sized crater Scheiner, and south-southwest of Blancanus is the worn Klaproth. The outer rim of Blancanus is considerably less worn than that of Scheiner crater to the northwest, and the edge is still fairly well defined and it has a terraced structure on the interior. The floor is relatively flat with several low rises at the midpoint. There is a cluster of small craterlets in the southern part of the crater floor. Crater Blancanus is named after the

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

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and

natural philosopher Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin ''philosophia naturalis'') is the philosophical study of physics, that is, nature and the physical universe, while ignoring any supernatural influence. It was dominant before the developme ...

, Giuseppe Biancani (1566–1624).

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 Blancanus.

References

* * * * * * * * * * * * Impact craters on the Moon {{Craters on the Moon: A–B