Baldet (lunar crater)

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Baldet
Baldet crater LROC.jpg
LRO image
Coordinates 53°18′S151°06′W / 53.3°S 151.1°W / -53.3; -151.1 Coordinates: 53°18′S151°06′W / 53.3°S 151.1°W / -53.3; -151.1
Diameter 55 km
Depth Unknown
Colongitude 153° at sunrise
Eponym Fernand Baldet
Oblique Lunar Orbiter 5 image Baldet crater 5026 h1.jpg
Oblique Lunar Orbiter 5 image

Baldet is a lunar impact crater that is located on the southern hemisphere on the far side of the Moon. It lies in the lava-flooded region between the craters Cori to the north, Stoney to the southwest, and the worn walled plain Minkowski to the southeast.

Lunar craters

Lunar craters are impact craters on Earth's Moon. The Moon's surface has many craters, almost all of which were formed by impacts.

Impact crater Circular depression on a solid astronomical body formed by a hypervelocity impact of a smaller object

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.

Sphere round geometrical and circular object in three-dimensional space; special case of spheroid

A sphere is a perfectly round geometrical object in three-dimensional space that is the surface of a completely round ball.

The rim of Baldet is low and worn, but generally retains its original circular shape. There is a slight outward bulge along the northwest rim, and the western interior wall is wider than elsewhere.

The flat, nearly featureless interior has been flooded by lava, and has a lower albedo than the surroundings giving is a darker hue. A smaller crater has broken into the eastern rim, leaving a gap where the two craters intersect that has been covered in lava. A similar-sized ghost crater lies just inside the northern rim, producing a raised ring in the crater surface. Another such formation lies just outside the southern rim of Baldet.

Albedo ratio of reflected radiation to incident radiation

Albedo is the measure of the diffuse reflection of solar radiation out of the total solar radiation received by an astronomical body. It is dimensionless and measured on a scale from 0 to 1.

Palimpsest manuscript page thats been used multiple times

In textual studies, a palimpsest is a manuscript page, either from a scroll or a book, from which the text has been scraped or washed off so that the page can be reused for another document. Pergamene was made of lamb, calf, or goat kid skin and was expensive and not readily available, so in the interest of economy a pergamene often was re-used by scraping the previous writing. In colloquial usage, the term palimpsest is also used in architecture, archaeology, and geomorphology to denote an object made or worked upon for one purpose and later reused for another, for example a monumental brass the reverse blank side of which has been re-engraved.

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 Baldet.

BaldetLatitudeLongitudeDiameter
J54.6° S149.5° W17 km

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Karrer (crater) lunar crater

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Kugler (crater) lunar crater

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Loewy (crater) lunar crater

Loewy is a small lunar impact crater that lies along the eastern rim of Mare Humorum, in the southwest part of the Moon's near side. It was named after French astronomer Maurice Loewy. This is a lava-flooded formation that lies to the southwest of the larger, lava-flooded crater Agatharchides. To the southeast is an even larger lava-flooded formation, Hippalus.

Cook (crater) lunar crater

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Xenophanes (crater) impact crater

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Chevallier (crater) impact crater

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Lamb (crater) lunar crater

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Cichus (crater) impact crater

Cichus is a lunar impact crater that lies in the southwestern part of the Moon, at the eastern edge of Palus Epidemiarum. Just to the northeast and nearly contacting the rim is the lava-flooded crater remnant Weiss. The crater is named after Italian astronomer Cecco d'Ascoli.

Pauli (crater) impact crater

Pauli is a lunar impact crater that is located on the Moon's far side. It lies about halfway between the lunar equator and southern pole, across the southern rim of the larger walled plain Roche.

Priestley (lunar crater) lunar crater

Priestley is a lunar impact crater that is located on the far side of the Moon from the Earth, in the low southern latitudes. It lies to the southeast of the flooded crater Kugler.

Minkowski (crater) Moon crater

Minkowski is a crater on the far side of the Moon, in the lower latitudes of the southern hemisphere. The lunar crater lies about one crater diameter to the north-northeast of crater Lemaître, a formation of similar dimension. To the northwest of Minkowski is the flooded crater Baldet, and to the southeast lies Fizeau.

References

Ewen Whitaker British astronomer

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.

NASA space-related agency of the United States government

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.

United States Geological Survey Scientific agency of the United States government

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.