Fermi (crater)

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Fermi
Fermi crater 3121 med.jpg
Lunar Orbiter 3 image
Coordinates 19°37′S123°14′E / 19.61°S 123.24°E / -19.61; 123.24
Diameter 241.41 km (150.01 mi) [1]
Depth 5.5 km (3.4 mi) [2]
Colongitude 240° at sunrise
Formation Pre-Nectarian [3] [4]
Eponym Enrico Fermi
Apollo 17 mapping camera image of the interior Fermi crater AS17-M-2803.jpg
Apollo 17 mapping camera image of the interior
Oblique Apollo 17 image, facing east Fermi crater AS17-M-3184.jpg
Oblique Apollo 17 image, facing east

Fermi is a large lunar impact crater of the category named a walled plain. It lies on the far side of the Moon and can not be viewed from the Earth. [5] Thus this feature must be viewed from an orbiting spacecraft.

The most notable aspect of Fermi is that the large and prominent crater Tsiolkovskiy intrudes into its southeastern rim. [6] Unlike Tsiolkovskiy, however, the interior of Fermi is not covered by dark basaltic lava, and so it is barely distinguishable from the surrounding rugged and battered terrain. If it were located on the near side of the Moon, however, this would be one of the largest visible craters, with a dimension roughly equal to the crater Humboldt, lying several hundred kilometers to the west-southwest.

This formation dates to the Pre-Nectarian period of the lunar geologic timescale. [3] [4] The infrared spectrum of pure crystalline plagioclase has been identified on the northwest floor. [7] The crater has been significantly eroded and damaged by subsequent impacts, and several notable craters lie across the rim and within the basin. Delporte is the most notable of these, lying across the northwest rim. Just to the east and inside the northern rim of Fermi is Litke. The smaller crater Xenophon is centered across the southern rim. In the southern half of the floor are the craters Diderot and Babakin. [6]

The rim, where it survives, is the most intact along the northern half. The southern half of the rim has been nearly obliterated, forming an irregular stretch of ground. The interior floor of Fermi has been modified by the creation of Tsiolkovskiy and the subsequent collapse of its western rim, [8] with striations in the northeastern floor of Fermi, and parallel ridges along the western rim of Tsiolkovskiy. The remaining sections of the floor is somewhat more level, although pock-marked by myriads of tiny craterlets. The central section of the floor in particular has several clustered crater formations. [9]

Previously identified as Basin V, [10] this crater was named after Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi (1901–1954), a Nobel laureate in 1938. [11] Its designation was formally adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1970. [1]

References

  1. 1 2 "Fermi". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology Research Program. Retrieved 2026-10-19.
  2. ↑ "LTO-101B1 Litke". Lunar Topographic Orthophotomap (LTO) Series. Defense Mapping Agency. Retrieved 2026-06-12. Scale: 1:250,000.
  3. 1 2 Wilhelms, Don E.; McCauley, John F.; Trask, Newell J. (1987). The geologic history of the Moon. USGS Professional Paper 1348. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 149. doi:10.3133/pp1348.
  4. 1 2 Byrne, Charles J. (2015). The Moon's Largest Craters and Basins: Images and Topographic Maps from LRO, GRAIL, and Kaguya. Physics and Astronomy. Springer. pp. 8–9. ISBN   978-3-319-22032-1.
  5. ↑ Moore, Patrick (2000). The Data Book of Astronomy. CRC Press. p. 67. ISBN   978-1-4200-3344-1.
  6. 1 2 Byrne, Charles J. (2008). The Far Side of the Moon. Springer. pp. 20–21, 25–26, 42. ISBN   978-1-4899-8806-5.
  7. ↑ Donaldson Hanna, K. L.; et al. (July 2014). "Global assessment of pure crystalline plagioclase across the Moon and implications for the evolution of the primary crust". Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets. 119 (7): 1516–1545. Bibcode:2014JGRE..119.1516D. doi:10.1002/2013JE004476.
  8. ↑ Boyce, Joseph M.; et al. (February 2020). "The Tsiolkovskiy crater landslide, the moon: An LROC view". Icarus. 337. id. 113464. Bibcode:2020Icar..33713464B. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2019.113464.
  9. ↑ Bussey, B.; Spudis, P. (2004). The Clementine Atlas of the Moon. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 101. ISBN   978-0-521-81528-4.
  10. ↑ "Lunar Farside Chart (LFC-1A)" (2nd ed.). October 1967. Retrieved 2026-06-12.
  11. ↑ Menzel, D. H.; et al. (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. See p. 183.

The following are L&PI topographic maps that show portions of Fermi.

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