Meteor Crater, or Barringer Crater, is an impact crater about 37 mi (60 km) east of Flagstaff and 18 mi (29 km) west of Winslow in the desert of northern Arizona, United States. The site had several earlier names, and fragments of the meteorite are officially called the Canyon Diablo Meteorite, after the adjacent Canyon Diablo.
The Lunar Orbiter program was a series of five uncrewed lunar orbiter missions launched by the United States from 1966 through 1967. Intended to help select Apollo landing sites by mapping the Moon's surface, they provided the first photographs from lunar orbit and photographed both the Moon and Earth.
Mare Orientale is a lunar mare. It is located on the western border of the near side and far side of the Moon, and is difficult to see from an Earthbound perspective. Images from spacecraft have revealed it to be one of the most striking large scale lunar features, resembling a target ring bullseye.
Mare Humorum is a lunar mare. The impact basin it is located in is 425 kilometers (264 mi) across.
Mare Crisium is a lunar mare located in the Moon's Crisium basin, just northeast of Mare Tranquillitatis. Mare Crisium is a basin of Nectarian age.
Mare Tranquillitatis is a lunar mare that sits within the Tranquillitatis basin on the Moon. It is the first location on another celestial body to be visited by humans.
Mare Cognitum is a lunar mare located in a basin or large crater which sits in the second ring of Oceanus Procellarum. To the northwest of the mare is the Montes Riphaeus mountain range, part of the rim of the buried crater or basin containing the mare. Previously unnamed, the mare received its name in 1964 in reference to its selection as the target for the successful impact probe Ranger 7, the first American spacecraft to return closeup images of the Moon's surface.
Eugene Merle Shoemaker was an American geologist. He co-discovered Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 with his wife Carolyn S. Shoemaker and David H. Levy. This comet hit Jupiter in July 1994: the impact was televised around the world. Shoemaker also studied terrestrial craters, such as Barringer Meteor Crater in Arizona, and along with Edward Chao provided the first conclusive evidence of its origin as an impact crater. He was also the first director of the United States Geological Survey's Astrogeology Research Program.
Carolyn Jean Spellmann Shoemaker was an American astronomer and a co-discoverer of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9. She discovered 32 comets and more than 500 asteroids.
Alphonsus is an ancient impact crater on the Moon that dates from the pre-Nectarian era. It is located on the lunar highlands on the eastern end of Mare Nubium, west of the Imbrian Highlands, and slightly overlaps the crater Ptolemaeus to the north. To the southwest is the smaller Alpetragius. The crater name was approved by the IAU in 1935.
Harold (Hal) Masursky was an American astrogeologist.
Planetary geology, alternatively known as astrogeology or exogeology, is a planetary science discipline concerned with the geology of celestial bodies such as planets and their moons, asteroids, comets, and meteorites. Although the geo- prefix typically indicates topics of or relating to Earth, planetary geology is named as such for historical and convenience reasons; due to the types of investigations involved, it is closely linked with Earth-based geology. These investigations are centered around the composition, structure, processes, and history of a celestial body.
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.
Integrated Software for Imagers and Spectrometers (Isis) is a specialized software package developed by the USGS to process images and spectra collected by current and past NASA planetary missions sent to Earth's Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and other solar system bodies.
Hesperia Planum is a broad lava plain in the southern highlands of the planet Mars. The plain is notable for its moderate number of impact craters and abundant wrinkle ridges. It is also the location of the ancient volcano Tyrrhena Mons. The Hesperian time period on Mars is named after Hesperia Planum.
Hadley–Apennine is a region on the near side of Earth's Moon that served as the landing site for the American Apollo 15 mission, the fourth crewed landing on the Moon and the first of the "J-missions", in July 1971. The site is located on the eastern edge of Mare Imbrium on a lava plain known as Palus Putredinis. Hadley–Apennine is bordered by the Montes Apenninus, a mountain range, and Hadley Rille, a meandering channel, on the east and west, respectively.
Don Edward Wilhelms is a former United States Geological Survey geologist who contributed to geologic mapping of the Earth's moon and to the geologic training of the Apollo astronauts. He is the author of To a Rocky Moon: A Geologist's History of Lunar Exploration (1993), The geologic history of the Moon (1987), and he co-authored the Geologic Map of the Near Side of the Moon (1971) with John F. McCauley. Wilhelms also contributed to Apollo Over the Moon: A View from Orbit. He has also contributed to the study of Mars, Mercury, and Ganymede.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the Moon:
Baerbel Kösters Lucchitta is a scientist emeritus at the Astrogeology Science Center at the USGS and one of the first women in the field of Astrogeology. She was one of the people responsible of making lunar maps for the Apollo 11 mission. During her career, she was dedicated to mapping the Moon, Mars, Europa and the Galilean Satellites, and Antarctica. The Lucchitta Glacier is named after her work in Antarctica, and the Asteroid 4569 Baerbel is named after her work in planetary geology.
David Holcomb Scott was an American geologist who worked for the U.S. Geological Survey's Center of Astrogeology in Flagstaff, Arizona. Scott was involved in the Apollo Program, and served as project chief for the Mars geologic mapping program, which was funded by NASA's Planetology Program Office. He served as Discipline Scientist for the NASA Planetary Geology and Geophysics Program, and founded the Lunar Geosciences Working Group, which resulted in publication of Status and Future of Lunar Geoscience. He continued to publish scientific articles on Mars through the 1990s. He authored more formal lunar and planetary geologic maps than anyone else in the Branch of Astrogeology.
