Triesnecker-Boscovich Si - Barbero Zetta Ferruggia

Bruce is a small

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 ...

located in the small lunar mare

Sinus Medii Sinus Medii (Latin ''sinus mediī'' "Middle Bay") is a small lunar mare. It takes its name from its location at the intersection of the Moon's equator and prime meridian; as seen from the Earth, this feature is located in the central part of the ...

. It lies to the west-northwest of the irregular crater Rhaeticus, and is about 33 km to the west of the even smaller Blagg. It is named for

Catherine Wolfe Bruce Catherine Wolfe Bruce (January 22, 1816, New York – March 13, 1900, New York) was a noted American philanthropist and patron of astronomy. Early life Bruce was born on January 22, 1816. She was the daughter of the George Bruce (1781–1866), ...

, an American philanthropist and patroness of astronomy. This feature is circular and cup-shaped, with no notable impacts overlaying the rim or interior. The interior has a generally 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, but there is a band of darker material cross the midpoint of the crater from west to east. It is surrounded by

lunar mare The lunar maria ( ; mare ) are large, dark, basaltic plains on Earth's Moon, formed by lava flowing into ancient impact basins. They are less reflective than the "highlands" as a result of their iron-rich composition, and hence appear dark to ...

, with a few tiny craterlets in the surface to the east. Less than forty kilometres to the southeast is the original point of the

selenographic coordinate The selenographic coordinate system is used to refer to locations on the surface of Earth's moon. Any position on the lunar surface can be referenced by specifying two numerical values, which are comparable to the latitude and longitude of Earth ...

system. From the floor of this crater the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

always appears at the

zenith The zenith (, ) is the imaginary point on the celestial sphere directly "above" a particular location. "Above" means in the vertical direction (Vertical and horizontal, plumb line) opposite to the gravity direction at that location (nadir). The z ...

. Both the Surveyor 4 and Surveyor 6 probes landed about 50 km to the southwest of Bruce.

References

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External links

Bruce at The Moon Wiki
{{Craters on the Moon: A–B Impact craters on the Moon