Kinau is a small, eroded

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 ...

that is located in the low southern

latitude In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinate system, geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from −90° at t ...

s 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 to the southeast of the crater

Jacobi Jacobi may refer to: People * Jacobi (surname), a list of people with the surname * Jacobi Boykins (born 1995), American basketball player * Jacobi Francis (born 1998), American football player * Jacobi Mitchell (born 1986), Bahamian sprinter ...

, and about equally far to the north-northwest of Pentland. It is 42 kilometers in diameter and two kilometers deep. It may be from the

Pre-Nectarian The pre-Nectarian period of the lunar geologic timescale runs from 4.533 billion years ago (the time of the initial formation of the Moon) to 3.920 billion years ago, when the Nectaris Basin was formed by a large impact. It is followed by the Necta ...

period, 4.55 to 3.85 billion years ago.''Autostar Suite Astronomer Edition''. CD-ROM. Meade, April 2006. The northwestern rim and inner wall of this crater has been heavily damaged by impacts, and is overlaid by a pair of small, cup-shaped craters. The remainder of the rim is worn and somewhat distorted into a

hexagon In geometry, a hexagon (from Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°. Regular hexagon A regular hexagon is de ...

al shape, with several small craterlets along the rim edge. The inner walls are relatively low, and the interior floor is almost featureless except for a few tiny craterlets. There is a low rise near the midpoint that is attached to the small crater to the northwest. The crater is named after 19th century

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

priest, teacher and amateur astronomer Adolph Gottfried Kinau.R.A. Garfinkle and B. Pfeiffer: "Discovery of the real person behind the name of the lunar crater Kinau", Journal of the British Astronomical Association 117 (2007) 81
/ref>

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 Kinau.

Notes

# ''The botanist C.A. Kinau was struck from the official list of the

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an government agency, agency of the United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geograp ...

in April 2007 and replaced by the correct eponym Adolph Gottfried Kinau.''

References

{{Reflist Impact craters on the Moon Pre-Nectarian