Diophantus (crater)

Diophantus
	Apollo 15 image
Coordinates	27°36′N34°18′W / 27.6°N 34.3°W
Diameter	19 km
Depth	3.0 km
Colongitude	34° at sunrise
Eponym	Diophantus

Last updated May 31, 2024

Diophantus is a lunar impact crater that lies in the southwestern part of the Mare Imbrium. It was named after ancient Greek mathematician Diophantus.^[1] It forms a pair with the larger crater Delisle to the north. Diophantus has a wide inner wall and a low central rise. To the north of Diophantus is the sinuous rille designated Rima Diophantus, named after the crater. Diophantus C lies near the exterior of the southwest wall.

Rima Diophantus

This cleft follows a generally east–west path across the Mare Imbrium. It is centered at selenographic coordinates 31.0° N, 32.0° W, and has a maximum diameter of 150 km.

Small craters

Several tiny craters north of Diophantus have been assigned names by the IAU. These are listed in the table below.

Crater	Coordinates	Diameter	Name source
Isabel	28°12′N34°06′W / 28.2°N 34.1°W / 28.2; -34.1	1 km	Spanish feminine name
Louise	28°30′N34°12′W / 28.5°N 34.2°W / 28.5; -34.2	0.8 km	French feminine name
Samir	28°30′N34°18′W / 28.5°N 34.3°W / 28.5; -34.3	2 km	Arabic masculine name
Walter¹	28°00′N33°48′W / 28.0°N 33.8°W / 28.0; -33.8	1 km	German masculine name

¹	Not to be confused with the large crater Walther in the southern hemisphere which is misidentified as 'Walter' in some publications

The crater Samir has bright rays that extend for over 70 km.

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 Diophantus.

Diophantus	Latitude	Longitude	Diameter
B	29.1° N	32.5° W	6 km
C	27.3° N	34.7° W	5 km
D	26.9° N	36.3° W	4 km

The following craters have been renamed by the IAU.

Diophantus A —See Artsimovich.

Related Research Articles

Archimedes is a large lunar impact crater on the eastern edges of the Mare Imbrium. Its diameter is 81 km.

Ångström is a small lunar impact crater located on the border between Oceanus Procellarum to the west and Mare Imbrium to the east. To the south is a formation of mountains rising out of the mare named the Montes Harbinger. To the east are some wrinkle ridges named the Dorsum Bucher and Dorsa Argand. This crater is bowl-shaped, with a circular rim and inner walls that slope down to the small central floor. It has a higher albedo than the surrounding maria. The crater halo is radar dark, indicating a lack of larger blocks among the fine ejecta.

Artemis is a tiny lunar impact crater located in the Mare Imbrium. Craters of this dimension typically form cup-shaped excavations on the surface of the Moon. It lies near the midpoint between the craters Euler to the west and Lambert to the east. Just a few kilometers to the southeast is the even smaller Verne.

Bessarion is a lunar impact crater located near the southwest edge of Mare Imbrium. It is named after Greek scholar Bessarion. Some distance to the east is the crater T. Mayer. Bessarion is a bowl-shaped crater with a low central rise and a higher albedo than the maria, making it a brighter feature when the sun is overhead.

Brayley is a lunar impact crater located in the southwest part of the Mare Imbrium. It was named after British geographer Edward W. Brayley in 1935. It has a circular rim and a low rise in the center. There are no notable craters overlapping the rim or interior. The sinuous rille Rima Brayley passes to the north of Brayley.

Carlini is a small lunar impact crater located in the Mare Imbrium. It was named after Italian astronomer Francesco Carlini. The crater is bowl-shaped with a small central floor. It has a higher albedo than the surrounding mare, making it prominent due to its isolated location. To the south is a wrinkle ridge named Dorsum Zirkel, and farther south lies the peak Mons La Hire.

Euler is a lunar impact crater located in the southern half of the Mare Imbrium, and is named after the Swiss mathematician, physician and astronomer Leonhard Euler. The most notable nearby feature is Mons Vinogradov to the west-southwest. There is a cluster of low ridges to the southwest, and this formation includes the small crater Natasha and the tiny Jehan. About 200 kilometers to the east-northeast is the comparably sized crater Lambert.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sharp (crater)</span> Crater on the Moon

Sharp is a lunar impact crater located to the west of the Sinus Iridum bay of the Mare Imbrium, beyond the Montes Jura range. To the southwest is the crater Mairan. Because of its location and foreshortening, Sharp appears elliptical from the earth.

Delisle is a small lunar impact crater in the western part of the Mare Imbrium. It was named after French astronomer Joseph-Nicolas Delisle. It lies to the north of the crater Diophantus, and just to the northwest of the ridge designated Mons Delisle. Between Delisle and Diophantus is a sinuous rille named Rima Diophantus, with a diameter of 150 km. To the northeast is another rille designated Rima Delisle, named after this crater.

Fedorov is a lunar geologic feature located in the western Mare Imbrium named after Russian rocket scientist Aleksandr Petrovich Fedorov. It lies east-northeast of the crater Diophantus, and southeast of Delisle. About 20 kilometers to the south-southeast is the slightly larger formation of Artsimovich.

La Condamine is a small lunar impact crater that is located on the southern edge of the Mare Frigoris, in the northern part of the Moon. It lies to the northeast of the mountain-rimmed Sinus Iridum formation in the northwest part of the Mare Imbrium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cayley (crater)</span> Crater on the Moon

Cayley is a small lunar impact crater that is located in a lava-flooded region to the west of Mare Tranquillitatis. It was named after the 19th-century English mathematician Arthur Cayley. It lies to the northwest of the smaller crater De Morgan and the larger D'Arrest. West and slightly north of Cayley is Whewell, a crater of about the same dimensions. To the north is a linear rille designated Rima Ariadaeus, which follows a course to the east-southeast.

Drude is a lunar impact crater that lies on the far side of the Moon, in the rugged Montes Cordillera range that forms the outer ring around the Mare Orientale impact basin. It is located just behind the west-southwest limb, and this area is sometimes brought into sight from Earth during favorable librations. However, even at such times, the crater is viewed from the edge and little detail can be seen.

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.

Bliss is small lunar impact crater that is located just to the west of the dark-floored crater Plato. It lies in a region of continental terrain between Mare Imbrium to the south and Mare Frigoris to the north. This crater is bowl-shaped, with a small interior floor at the midpoint and a somewhat eroded outer rim.

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.

Mons La Hire is a solitary lunar mountain in the western Mare Imbrium. It is located to the northeast of the crater Euler, and to the west-northwest of Lambert.

Mons Vinogradov is a rugged massif that is located on the lunar mare where Oceanus Procellarum to the southwest joins Mare Imbrium to the east. There are three primary peaks in this formation, which rise to altitudes of 1.0–1.4 km above the surface. To the east of this rise is the crater Euler, and to the southeast is an area of rugged ground that reaches the Montes Carpatus range. The Carpatus mountain range forms the southwest boundary of the Mare Imbrium.

Mons Bradley is a lunar mountain massif in the Montes Apenninus range, along the eastern edge of the Mare Imbrium. It is located to the west of the crater Conon. To the west of this peak is the Rima Bradley rille.

Cassini is a lunar impact crater that is located in the Palus Nebularum, at the eastern end of Mare Imbrium. The crater was named after astronomers Giovanni Cassini and Jacques Cassini. To the northeast is the Promontorium Agassiz, the southern tip of the Montes Alpes mountain range. South by south-east of Cassini is the crater Theaetetus. To the northwest is the lone peak Mons Piton.

References

↑ "Diophantus (crater)". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology Research Program.
↑ The geologic history of the Moon. USGS Professional Paper 1348. By Don E. Wilhelms, John F. McCauley, and Newell J. Trask. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington: 1987. Table 12.2.

Andersson, L. E.; Whitaker, E. A. (1982). NASA Catalogue of Lunar Nomenclature. NASA RP-1097.
Bussey, B.; Spudis, P. (2004). The Clementine Atlas of the Moon. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-81528-4.
Cocks, Elijah E.; Cocks, Josiah C. (1995). Who's Who on the Moon: A Biographical Dictionary of Lunar Nomenclature. Tudor Publishers. ISBN 978-0-936389-27-1.
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. S2CID 122125855.
Moore, Patrick (2001). On the Moon. Sterling Publishing Co. ISBN 978-0-304-35469-6.
Price, Fred W. (1988). The Moon Observer's Handbook. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-33500-3.
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. (1999). Mapping and Naming the Moon. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-62248-6.
Wlasuk, Peter T. (2000). Observing the Moon. Springer. ISBN 978-1-85233-193-1.

External links

LTO-39B3 Diophantus — L&PI topographic map of crater and vicinity.
"Featured Image: Dark Streaks in Diophantus Crater". Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. NASA. February 23, 2011. Retrieved 2011-03-18.

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[1] "Diophantus (crater)". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology Research Program.

[2] The geologic history of the Moon. USGS Professional Paper 1348. By Don E. Wilhelms, John F. McCauley, and Newell J. Trask. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington: 1987. Table 12.2.

[1]

[2]

v t e Craters on the Moon: C–F
C	C. Herschel C. Mayer Cabannes Cabeus Cailleux Cai Lun Cajal Cajori Calippus Cameron Campanus Campbell Cannizzaro Cannon Cantor Capella Capuanus Cardanus Carlini Carlos Carmichael Carnot Carol Carpenter Carrel Carrillo Carrington Cartan Carver Casatus Cassegrain Cassini Catalán Catharina Cauchy Cavalerius Cavendish Caventou Cayley Celsius Censorinus Cepheus Chacornac Chadwick Chaffee Challis Chalonge Chamberlin Champollion Chandler Chang Heng Chang-Ngo Chant Chaplygin Chapman Chappe Chappell Charles Charlier Chaucer Chauvenet Chawla Chebyshev Chernyshev Chevallier Ching-Te Chladni Chrétien Cichus Clairaut Clark Clausius Clavius Cleomedes Cleostratus Clerke Coblentz Cockcroft Collins Colombo Compton Comrie Comstock Condon Condorcet Congreve Conon Cook Cooper Copernicus Cori Coriolis Couder Coulomb Courtney Cremona Crile Crocco Crommelin Crookes Crozier Crüger Ctesibius Curie Curtis Curtius Cusanus Cuvier Cyrano Cyrillus Cysatus
D	D. Brown da Vinci Daedalus Dag Daguerre Dale d'Alembert Dalton Daly Damoiseau Dandelion Daniell Danjon Dante Darney D'Arrest D'Arsonval Darwin Das Daubrée Davisson Davy Dawes Dawson De Forest de Gasparis de Gerlache De La Rue De Moraes De Morgan De Roy De Sitter De Vico De Vries Debes Debus Debye Dechen Delambre Delaunay Delia Delisle Dellinger Delmotte Delporte Deluc Dembowski Democritus Demonax Denning Desargues Descartes Deseilligny Deslandres Deutsch Dewar Diana Diderot Dionysius Diophantus Dirichlet Dobrovolʹskiy Doerfel Dollond Donati Donna Donner Doppelmayer Doppler Douglass Dove Draper Drebbel Dreyer Drude Dryden Drygalski Dubyago Dufay Dugan Dunér Dunthorne Dyson Dziewulski
E	Eckert Eddington Edison Edith Egede Ehrlich Eichstadt Eijkman Eimmart Einstein Einthoven Elger Ellerman Ellison Elmer Elvey Emden Encke Endymion Engelʹgardt Eötvös Epigenes Epimenides Eratosthenes Erlanger Erro Esclangon Esnault-Pelterie Espin Euclides Euctemon Eudoxus Euler Evans Evdokimov Evershed Ewen
F	Fabbroni Fabricius Fabry Fahrenheit Fairouz Faraday Faustini Fauth Faye Fechner Fedorov Felix Fényi Feoktistov Fermat Fermi Fernelius Fersman Fesenkov Feuillée Fibiger Finsch Finsen Firmicus Firsov Fischer Fitzgerald Fizeau Flammarion Flamsteed Fleming Florensky Florey Focas Fontana Fontenelle Foster Foucault Fourier Fowler Fox Fra Mauro Fracastorius Franck Franklin Franz Fraunhofer Fredholm Freud Freundlich Fridman Froelich Frost Fryxell Furnerius

Apollo 15 image
Coordinates	27°36′N34°18′W / 27.6°N 34.3°W / 27.6; -34.3
Diameter	19 km
Depth	3.0 km
Colongitude	34° at sunrise
Eponym	Diophantus