Lents (crater)

Last updated
Lents
Lents and Lents C craters WAC.jpg
LRO WAC image with Lents below left of center and Lents C above right of center
Coordinates 2°48′N102°06′W / 2.8°N 102.1°W / 2.8; -102.1 Coordinates: 2°48′N102°06′W / 2.8°N 102.1°W / 2.8; -102.1
Diameter 21 km
Depth Unknown
Colongitude 102° at sunrise
Eponym Heinrich F. E. Lenz
Oblique Lunar Orbiter 5 image with Lents at center and Lents C below right, facing west Lenz crater 5015 h2.jpg
Oblique Lunar Orbiter 5 image with Lents at center and Lents C below right, facing west

Lents is a small lunar impact crater on the far side of the Moon. It is located within the north-northwestern section of the immense skirt of ejecta that surrounds the Mare Orientale impact basin. To the south is the Montes Cordillera mountain ring, and to the north-northeast is the damaged crater Elvey.

This is a bowl-shaped formation with an interior floor that is about half the diameter of the crater. Attached to the northeastern exterior of Lents is the satellite crater Lents C, a feature of roughly the same dimension. Slightly more than a crater diameter to the east of Lents C is Pierazzo, which produced a broad, wispy ray system that extends for more than 100 km in all directions. The ray material from this impact lies across both Lents C and Lents, reaching as far north as Elvey.

On some maps, Lents is called Lenz.

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 Lents.

LentsLatitudeLongitudeDiameter
C3.3° N101.6° W23 km
J3.7° S97.3° W16 km
K2.3° S98.8° W21 km

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Pierazzo (crater) lunar crater

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