Amontons (crater)

Amontons
	Photo by LRO
Coordinates	5°18′S46°48′E / 5.3°S 46.8°E Coordinates: 5°18′S46°48′E / 5.3°S 46.8°E
Diameter	3 km
Depth	Unknown
Colongitude	213° at sunrise
Eponym	Guillaume Amontons

Last updated August 08, 2019

Amontons is a tiny lunar impact crater in the western half of the Mare Fecunditatis. It is a circular, cup-shaped formation that has been excavated out of the level surface by the impact, and is the same dark hue as the surrounding mare. When the sun is at a low angle, multiple ghost-craters are visible in the mare surface to the south-southeast and north of it.

An impact crater is an approximately circular depression in the surface of a planet, moon, or other solid body in the Solar System or elsewhere, formed by the hypervelocity impact of a smaller body. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal collapse, impact craters typically have raised rims and floors that are lower in elevation than the surrounding terrain. Impact craters range from small, simple, bowl-shaped depressions to large, complex, multi-ringed impact basins. Meteor Crater is a well-known example of a small impact crater on Earth.

Mare Fecunditatis is a lunar mare which is 840 km in diameter.

The lunar maria are large, dark, basaltic plains on Earth's Moon, formed by ancient volcanic eruptions. They were dubbed maria, Latin for "seas", by early astronomers who mistook them for actual seas. They are less reflective than the "highlands" as a result of their iron-rich composition, and hence appear dark to the naked eye. The maria cover about 16% of the lunar surface, mostly on the side visible from Earth. The few maria on the far side are much smaller, residing mostly in very large craters. The traditional nomenclature for the Moon also includes one oceanus (ocean), as well as features with the names lacus (lake), palus (marsh), and sinus (bay). The last three are smaller than maria, but have the same nature and characteristics.

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Beer is a relatively small lunar impact crater located on the Mare Imbrium, to the east of the crater Timocharis. It was named after German astronomer Wilhelm W. Beer. Just to the northwest is the matching twin Feuillée.

Finsch is a relatively small lunar impact crater in the mid-part of Mare Serenitatis that has been almost completely covered by the mare, forming a ghost crater in the lava plain. It was named after German zoologist Otto Finsch. It is located to the south-southeast of the crater Sarabhai and northeast of Bessel.

Fahrenheit is a tiny lunar impact crater located in the southeast part of the Mare Crisium. This area of the surface is nearly devoid of impact features of interest. To the east are the Dorsa Harker wrinkle ridges, and beyond them is Promontorium Agarum at the edge of the mare. The landing site of the Soviet Luna 24 probe is located about 15 kilometers to the southeast.

Arago is a lunar impact crater located in the western part of the Mare Tranquillitatis. It is named after French astronomer François Arago. Its diameter is 26 km. To the southwest lies the crater Manners, and beyond are Dionysius and the Ritter–Sabine crater pair. To the southeast is the large Lamont formation that has been submerged by the mare.

Doppelmayer is the remains of a lunar impact crater that lies on the southwest edge of Mare Humorum. It was named after the German mathematician and astronomer Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr. To the south-southeast is another flooded crater designated Lee, and to the southeast is Vitello. Just to the east-northeast of Doppelmayer lies the nearly submerged crater Puiseux.

Abel is an ancient lunar impact crater that lies near the southeast limb of the Moon's near side. It is located to the south of the crater Barnard, at the northwest edge of the Mare Australe.

Archytas is a lunar impact crater that protrudes into the northern edge of Mare Frigoris. To the northwest is the comparably sized crater Timaeus, and the smaller Protagoras lies in the opposite direction to the southeast. Further to the southwest, beyond the opposite edge of the mare, is the dark-floored crater Plato.

Baade is a lunar impact crater that is located near the southwest limb of the Moon on the near side, to the southwest of the enormous Mare Orientale impact basin. The area to the east of this crater forms the junction between the 280-km-long Vallis Bouvard to the north and the narrower, 160-km-long Vallis Baade to the south-southeast. Both valleys radiate away from the impact basin to the north.

Boss is a lunar impact crater that is located along the northeast rim of the Moon's near side. Due to its location, the crater is viewed from the side by observers on the Earth, and its visibility is subject to libration effects.

Clausius is a lunar impact crater that is located in the southwest part of the Moon, in the small lunar mare designated Lacus Excellentiae. It is completely enclosed by mare material, although the tiny satellite crater Clausius A lies just to the north. The rim of Clausius is low and sharp, with a slightly oval shape that is longer in the north-south direction. The interior floor has been flooded by basaltic lava, and appears level and featureless with a darker surface that matches the mare surface that surrounds the crater exterior.

Crozier is a lunar impact crater that is located on the southwest edge of Mare Fecunditatis, a lunar mare in the eastern part of the Moon's near side. It lies to the east-northeast of the prominent crater Colombo, and southeast of the small crater Bellot.

Feuillée is a small lunar impact crater in the eastern part of the Mare Imbrium. It was named after French natural scientist Louis Feuillée. It lies less than a half crater diameter to the northwest of Beer, and the two formations form a nearly matched pair. To the west is the small but prominent crater Timocharis.

Eckert is a tiny, isolated lunar impact crater in the northern part of the Mare Crisium. This crater forms a circular pit in the dark surface of the surrounding lunar mare. Just to the west is a wrinkle ridge in the mare surface, a feature that is prominent only under oblique lighting from the Sun. The nearest craters of note are Peirce to the west-northwest, and Picard to the southwest. Both of these craters lie in the Mare Crisium basin.

Lagrange is a lunar impact crater that is attached to the northwestern rim of the crater Piazzi. It lies near the southwestern limb of the Moon, and the appearance is oblong due to foreshortening. To the northwest of this feature is the Montes Cordillera, a ring-shaped mountain range that surrounds the immense Mare Orientale impact basin.

Courtney is a tiny lunar impact crater on the Mare Imbrium, a lunar mare in the northwest quadrant of the Moon. It lies about two crater diameters to the northwest of Euler, in an otherwise isolated stretch of the mare. The dark surface in this region is marked by Euler's ray material. The name is an English male name.

Chadwick is a lunar impact crater that lies on the far side of the Moon's surface, just beyond the southwestern limb. It is located to the northwest of the crater De Roy, and was previously designated De Roy X before being given its current name by the IAU. This region of the lunar surface lies at the southern end of the ejecta blanket that surrounds the Mare Orientale impact basin.

Couder is a small lunar impact crater that is located just behind the western limb of the Moon, in a region of the surface that is brought into view during favorable librations. It lies on the inner foothills of the Montes Cordillera, a ring-shaped mountain range that surrounds the Mare Orientale impact basin.

File: Franz is a small lunar impact crater identified during the Apollo mission in August 1971 and located along the eastern edge of the Sinus Amoris, a bay that forms a northern extension to the Mare Tranquillitatis. Its diameter is 25 km. It was named after German astronomer Julius Heinrich Franz. It lies to the southwest of the prominent crater Macrobius. To the north is the smaller Carmichael, and to the northwest is the diminutive Theophrastus.

Donner is a lunar impact crater on the far side of the Moon. It is located just to the northeast of the Mare Australe, behind the southeastern limb of the Moon. During favorable librations this part of the lunar surface can be brought into view of the Earth, but the site is viewed from the edge and so not much detail can be seen.

Dreyer is the remnant of a lunar impact crater on the far side of the Moon. It is located along the eastern edge of the Mare Marginis, about midway between the craters Ginzel to the north and Erro to the south-southeast. It was named after Danish-Irish astronomer John L. E. Dreyer.

References

Andersson, L. E.; Whitaker, E. A. (1982). NASA Catalogue of Lunar Nomenclature. NASA RP-1097.
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McDowell, Jonathan (July 15, 2007). "Lunar Nomenclature". Jonathan's Space Report . Retrieved 2007-10-24.
Menzel, D. H.; Minnaert, M.; Levin, B.; Dollfus, A.; Bell, B. (1971). "Report on Lunar Nomenclature by the Working Group of Commission 17 of the IAU". Space Science Reviews. 12 (2): 136–186. Bibcode:1971SSRv...12..136M. doi:10.1007/BF00171763.
Moore, Patrick (2001). On the Moon. Sterling Publishing Co. ISBN 978-0-304-35469-6.
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Rükl, Antonín (1990). Atlas of the Moon. Kalmbach Books. ISBN 978-0-913135-17-4.
Webb, Rev. T. W. (1962). Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes (6th revised ed.). Dover. ISBN 978-0-486-20917-3.
Whitaker, Ewen A. (2003). Mapping and Naming the Moon. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-54414-6.
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Ewen Adair Whitaker was a British-born astronomer who specialized in lunar studies. During World War II he was engaged in quality control for the lead sheathing of hollow cables strung under the English Channel as part of the "Pipe Line Under The Ocean" Project (PLUTO) to supply gasoline to Allied military vehicles in France. After the war, he obtained a position at the Royal Greenwich Observatory working on the UV spectra of stars, but became interested in lunar studies. As a sideline, Whitaker drew and published the first accurate chart of the South Polar area of the Moon in 1954, and served as director of the Lunar Section of the British Astronomical Association.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the United States Federal Government responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research.

The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. The organization has four major science disciplines, concerning biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The USGS is a fact-finding research organization with no regulatory responsibility.

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Photo by LRO
Coordinates	5°18′S46°48′E / 5.3°S 46.8°E / -5.3; 46.8 Coordinates: 5°18′S46°48′E / 5.3°S 46.8°E / -5.3; 46.8
Diameter	3 km
Depth	Unknown
Colongitude	213° at sunrise
Eponym	Guillaume Amontons

v t e Craters on the Moon: A–B
A	Abbe Abbot Abel Abenezra Abetti Abul Wafa Abulfeda Acosta Adams Aepinus Agatharchides Agrippa Airy Aitken Akis Alan Al-Bakri Albategnius Albert Al-Biruni Alden Alder Aldrin Alekhin Alexander Alfraganus Alhazen Aliacensis Al-Khwarizmi Almanon Al-Marrakushi Aloha Alpetragius Alphonsus Alter Ameghino Amici Ammonius Amontons Amundsen Anaxagoras Anaximander Anaximenes Anděl Anders Anderson Andersson Andronov Ango Angström Ann Annegrit Ansgarius Antoniadi Anuchin Anville Apianus Apollo Apollonius Appleton Arago Aratus Archimedes Archytas Argelander Ariadaeus Aristarchus Aristillus Aristoteles Armiński Armstrong Arnold Arrhenius Artamonov Artem'ev Artemis Artsimovich Aryabhata Arzachel Asada Asclepi Ashbrook Aston Atlas Atwood Autolycus Auwers Auzout Avery Avicenna Avogadro Azophi
B	Baade Babakin Babbage Babcock Back Backlund Baco Baillaud Bailly Baily Balandin Balboa Baldet Ball Balmer Banachiewicz Bancroft Banting Barbier Barkla Barnard Barocius Barringer Barrow Bartels Bawa Bayer Beals Beaumont Becquerel Bečvář Beer Behaim Beijerinck Beketov Béla Bel'kovich Bell Bellinsgauzen Bellot Belopol'skiy Belyaev Benedict Bergman Bergstrand Berkner Berlage Bernoulli Berosus Berzelius Bessarion Bessel Bettinus Bhabha Bianchini Biela Bilharz Billy Bingham Biot Birkeland Birkhoff Birmingham Birt Bi Sheng Bjerknes Black Blackett Blagg Blancanus Blanchard Blanchinus Blazhko Bliss Bobillier Bobone Bode Boethius Boguslawsky Bohnenberger Bohr Bok Boltzmann Bolyai Bombelli Bondarenko Bonpland Boole Borda Borel Boris Borman Born Borya Bosch Boscovich Bose Boss Bouguer Boussingault Bowditch Bowen Boyle Brackett Bragg Brashear Braude Brayley Bredikhin Breislak Brenner Brewster Brianchon Bridgman Briggs Brisbane Bronk Brouwer Brown Bruce Brunner Buch Buffon Buisson Bullialdus Bunsen Burckhardt Bürg Burnham Büsching Butlerov Buys-Ballot Byrd Byrgius