Joule (crater)

Joule
	LRO image
Coordinates	27°18′N144°12′W / 27.3°N 144.2°W Coordinates: 27°18′N144°12′W / 27.3°N 144.2°W
Diameter	96 km
Depth	Unknown
Colongitude	145° at sunrise
Eponym	James Prescott Joule

Last updated August 09, 2019

Joule is a lunar impact crater that lies on the far side of the Moon. It is located to the north-northeast of the walled plain Mach. To the northwest of Joule is the crater Blazhko.

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

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.

Earth's Moon is an astronomical body that orbits the planet and acts as its only permanent natural satellite. It is the fifth-largest satellite in the Solar System, and the largest among planetary satellites relative to the size of the planet that it orbits. The Moon is, after Jupiter's satellite Io, the second-densest satellite in the Solar System among those whose densities are known.

This is a worn and eroded crater formation. A pair of smaller craters lies along the northeastern rim, and a crater is intruding into the northwest rim. To the south is an outward projection that has the appearance of a crater partly overlain by Joule. The remainder of the rim and inner wall is somewhat irregular. The interior floor is more level than the terrain surrounding the crater, but is marked by some small craterlets. At the midpoint of the interior floor is a central peak.

Joule T is located less than a crater diameter to the west of Joule. A smaller crater named Wargo with a prominent ray system lies on the western edge of Joule T. These rays primarily project to the south of the crater, with the most prominent ray crossing the crater Harvey to the south. Only faint traces of this ray system actually cross into Joule, and are generally restricted to the western rim, inner sides and floor.

Wargo is a lunar crater on the far side of the Moon. It is located to the south of Blazhko, and to the west of Joule.

A ray system comprises radial streaks of fine ejecta thrown out during the formation of an impact crater, looking somewhat like many thin spokes coming from the hub of a wheel. The rays may extend for lengths up to several times the diameter of their originating crater, and are often accompanied by small secondary craters formed by larger chunks of ejecta. Ray systems have been identified on the Moon, Earth, Mercury, and some moons of the outer planets. Originally it was thought that they existed only on planets or moons lacking an atmosphere, but more recently they have been identified on Mars in infrared images taken from orbit by 2001 Mars Odyssey's thermal imager.

Harvey is a lunar impact crater that is located on the far side of the Moon from the Earth. It lies astride the eastern rim of the much larger crater Mach, and the outer rampart of Harvey extends part way across the interior floor. Some distance to the north of Harvey is the crater Joule, and equally far to the east-southeast is Kekulé.

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 Joule.

Joule	Latitude	Longitude	Diameter
K	25.8° N	141.9° W	16 km
L	26.1° N	144.1° W	69 km
T	27.7° N	148.2° W	37 km

Related Research Articles

Cavalerius is a prominent lunar impact crater that lies on the western edge of the Oceanus Procellarum lunar mare on the west part of the visible Moon. It nearly joins the northern rim of Hevelius to the south.

Bianchini is a lunar impact crater that lies along the northern Jura Mountains that ring the Sinus Iridum, in the northwestern part of the near side of the Moon. It was named after Italian astronomer Francesco Bianchini. The impact of this crater near the edge of the Jura Mountains deposited some material into the Sinus Iridum floor.

Doppler is a lunar impact crater named for Christian Doppler that is located at the southern edge of the walled plain Korolev, on the far side of the Moon. To the east are the craters Das and Galois. Farther to the southwest of Doppler is Mohorovičić.

Fizeau is a prominent lunar impact crater that is located on the far side of the Moon, in the southern hemisphere. Nearby craters of note include Minkowski to the west-northwest, and Eijkman to the southwest.

Blazhko is a lunar impact crater that is located in the northern hemisphere on the far side of the Moon. It lies to the northwest of the crater Joule, and to the south of Gadomski. The fresh, bright crater Wargo is to the south.

Casatus is a lunar impact crater that is located near the southern limb of the Moon. The north-northeast rim of the crater overlies a portion of the slightly larger crater Klaproth. Along the western rim, Casatus A intrudes somewhat into the interior, producing an inward-bowing rim. To the southeast of Casatus is Newton.

Demonax is a lunar impact crater near the southern limb of the Moon. This location makes the crater difficult to observe due to foreshortening. The crater is also illuminated at a very low angle, when it is in the sunlit side. Demonax lies just to the north of the crater Scott, one of the south polar formations. To the north-northwest is Boguslawsky.

Clairaut is a lunar impact crater that is located in the rugged southern highlands of the Moon's near side. It lies directly to the south of the crater Maurolycus and southeast of Barocius. Just to the southwest is Cuvier.

Carver is a lunar impact crater that is located on the far side of the Moon, due east of the walled plain Van der Waals. To the northeast is the crater Rosseland, and to the south-southeast lies Kozyrev.

Coriolis is a lunar impact crater that is located on the far side of the Moon. The crater floor is bisected by the lunar equator, and it lies about three crater diameters northwest of the crater Daedalus.

Dyson is a lunar impact crater, 63 kilometers in diameter, that lies on the far side of the Moon, past the northwest limb. It is located in the northern part of the surface, to the northwest of the crater Coulomb, and east of van't Hoff.

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.

Chandler is a lunar impact crater in the northern hemisphere, on the Moon's far side. It lies to the southeast of the large walled plain D'Alembert, and southeast of the slightly smaller Chernyshev crater.

Comstock is a lunar impact crater that is located on the far side of the Moon. It lies to the northeast of the walled plain Fersman, and north of the crater Weyl.

Fourier is a lunar impact crater that is located in the southwestern part of the Moon's near side, just to the southeast of the crater Vieta. To the northeast is the Mare Humorum. The rim of this crater is roughly circular, but appears oval when viewed from the Earth due to foreshortening.

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.

Fersman is a large lunar impact crater on the Moon's far side. It lies to the east of the crater Poynting, and west-northwest of Weyl. To the south is the huge walled plain Hertzsprung.

Foster is a small lunar impact crater that lies to the southeast of the larger crater Joule, on the far side of the Moon. The rim of Foster is slightly eroded, and the narrow inner walls slope directly down to the relatively dark interior floor. The rim has a small outward bulge along the southwest side. There is a small craterlet on the floor next to the northern rim. A tiny impact in the southeast part of the crater interior is surrounded by a small skirt of high albedo material, producing a bright patch.

Larmor is a crater on the Moon's far side. It is located to the east-southeast of Shayn and due north of Dante. It is named in honor of the physicist Joseph Larmor.

References

Andersson, L. E.; Whitaker, E. A. (1982). NASA Catalogue of Lunar Nomenclature. NASA RP-1097.
Blue, Jennifer (July 25, 2007). "Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature". USGS . Retrieved 2007-08-05.
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.
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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. (1999). Mapping and Naming the Moon. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-62248-6.
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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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LRO image
Coordinates	27°18′N144°12′W / 27.3°N 144.2°W / 27.3; -144.2 Coordinates: 27°18′N144°12′W / 27.3°N 144.2°W / 27.3; -144.2
Diameter	96 km
Depth	Unknown
Colongitude	145° at sunrise
Eponym	James Prescott Joule