Tsiolkovskiy (crater)

Tsiolkovskiy
	Tsiolkovskiy on the Moon's far side from Apollo 15 showing the central peak. NASA photo.
Coordinates	20°24′S129°06′E / 20.4°S 129.1°E Coordinates: 20°24′S129°06′E / 20.4°S 129.1°E
Diameter	180 km
Depth	Unknown
Colongitude	235° at sunrise
Eponym	Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

Last updated April 28, 2023

Tsiolkovskiy is a large lunar impact crater that is located on the far side of the Moon. Named for Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky,^[1] it lies in the southern hemisphere, to the west of the large crater Gagarin, and northwest of Milne. Just to the south is Waterman, with Neujmin to the south-southwest. The crater protrudes into the neighbouring Fermi, an older crater of comparable size that does not have a lava-flooded floor.

Characteristics

Tsiolkovskiy is one of the most prominent features on the far side of the Moon. It possesses high, terraced inner walls and a well-formed central peak, which rises over 3200 m above the floor of the crater. The floor is unusual for a crater on the far side, as it is covered by the dark-hued mare that is characteristic of the maria found on the near side. The distribution of the mare material is not symmetrical across the floor, but is instead more heavily concentrated to the east and south. There is also a protruding bay of darker material that reaches the wall to the west-northwest. The remainder of the floor has the same albedo as the terrain surrounding the crater.

A row of small craters in Mendeleev crater far to the northeast are called Catena Mendeleev, and the row points directly at Tsiolkovsky. For this reason the craters are believed to be secondaries from the Tsiolkovsky impact.^[3]

This feature was discovered on photographs sent back by the Russian spacecraft Luna 3, and was subsequently imaged by several of the American Lunar Orbiters and then by Apollo astronauts.

Apollo 17 Astronaut Harrison "Jack" Schmitt and other scientists (Schmitt was the only trained scientist, a geologist, to walk on the Moon) strongly advocated Tsiolkovskiy as the landing site of Apollo 17, using small communications satellites deployed from the Command/Service Module for communication from the far side of the Moon. NASA vetoed the idea as too risky, and Apollo 17 instead landed in the Taurus–Littrow valley on December 11, 1972.

Views

Lunar Orbiter 1 image
Apollo 8 image
Apollo 15 mapping camera image of the central peak
Another oblique view from Apollo 15
Oblique view from Apollo 17, facing south
Mosaic of Apollo 17 mapping camera images, while Tsiolkovskiy was at the terminator

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 Tsiolkovskiy.

Tsiolkovskiy	Coordinates	Diameter, km
W	16°02′S126°52′E / 16.04°S 126.87°E / -16.04; 126.87 (Tsiolkovskiy W)	12.1
X	14°43′S126°28′E / 14.72°S 126.47°E / -14.72; 126.47 (Tsiolkovskiy X)	12.1

Related Research Articles

Anaxagoras is a young lunar impact crater that is located near the north pole of the Moon. It lies across the larger and more heavily worn crater Goldschmidt. To the south-southeast is Epigenes, and due south is the worn remains of Birmingham.

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Metius is a lunar impact crater located in the rugged highlands to the southeast of the Moon's near side. To the southwest the rim is attached to the crater Fabricius. Offset to the west-northwest is the heavily worn crater Brenner. Further away to the northeast is the crater Rheita and the long gorge Vallis Rheita.

Plinius is a prominent lunar impact crater on the border between Mare Serenitatis to the north and Mare Tranquilitatis to the south. Its diameter is 41 km. The crater is named after the Roman natural scientist and author Pliny the Elder. To the south-southeast of Plinius is the crater Ross, and to the northeast is Dawes. Just to the north is a system of rilles named the Rimae Plinius and touching it is the Brackett crater which is more than a crater diameter north. At the northwest edge of the rille is the Promontorium Archerusia, a cape off the western rim that encloses the Mare Serenitatis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Khwarizmi (crater)</span> Lunar impact crater

Al-Khwarizmi is a lunar impact crater located on the far side of the Moon. It lies to the southeast of the crater Moiseev, and northeast of Saenger.

Petavius is a large lunar impact crater located to the southeast of the Mare Fecunditatis, near the southeastern lunar limb. Attached to the northwest rim is the smaller crater Wrottesley. To the southeast are Palitzsch, Vallis Palitzsch, and Hase. Farther to the north is the large crater Vendelinus. Petavius appears oblong when viewed from the Earth due to foreshortening. Petavius is Imbrian in age.

Gassendi is a large lunar impact crater feature located at the northern edge of Mare Humorum. It was named after French astronomer Pierre Gassendi. The formation has been inundated by lava during the formation of the mare, so only the rim and the multiple central peaks remain above the surface. The outer rim is worn and eroded, although it retains a generally circular form. A smaller crater – Gassendi A – intrudes into the northern rim, and joins a rough uplift at the northwest part of the floor. The crater pair bear a curious resemblance to a diamond ring.

Eudoxus is a prominent lunar impact crater that lies to the east of the northern tip of the Montes Caucasus range. It is named after the Greek astronomer Eudoxus of Cnidus. It is located to the south of the prominent crater Aristoteles in the northern regions of the visible Moon. To the south is the ruined formation of Alexander, and the small crater Lamèch lies to the southwest.

Korolev is a large lunar impact crater of the walled plain or basin type. It is a basin of Nectarian age.

Archytas is a lunar impact crater that protrudes into the northern edge of Mare Frigoris. To the northwest is the comparably sized crater Timaeus, and the smaller Protagoras lies in the opposite direction to the southeast. Further to the southwest, beyond the opposite edge of the mare, is the dark-floored crater Plato.

Milne is a large lunar crater that is located in the southern hemisphere on the far side of the Moon, named after the British mathematician and astrophysicist Edward Arthur Milne. It lies to the northeast of the Mare Australe, and southeast of Lacus Solitudinis.

Mendeleev is a large lunar impact crater that is located on the far side of the Moon, as seen from the Earth. The southern rim of this walled plain just crosses the lunar equator. Intruding into the eastern rim of Mendeleev is the crater Schuster. Nearly on the opposite side, the smaller Hartmann intrudes into west-southwestern rim.

Pasteur is a large lunar impact crater, approximately 233 kilometers in diameter, belonging to the category termed a walled plain. It was named after French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur. It lies on the far side of the Moon as seen from the Earth, just beyond the eastern limb. The vicinity of this crater is occasionally brought into view from Earth due to librations, although not much detail can be seen.

Chaplygin is a large lunar impact crater that lies on the far side of the Moon. It is located to the southeast of the huge walled plain Mendeleev, about midway between the craters Schliemann to the northeast and Marconi to the southwest. It is about the same size as Albategnius on the near side.

Congreve is a lunar impact crater that is located on the far side of the Moon relative to the Earth, and lies across the lunar equator. It lies to the west-northwest of the massive walled plain Korolev. To the southeast is the crater Icarus, and due north is Zhukovskiy.

Necho is a lunar impact crater on the far side of the Moon, and therefore cannot be seen directly from the Earth. It lies to the northeast of the larger crater Langemak, about a crater diameter to the south-southwest of Bečvář and further east is Love.

Kohlschütter is a lunar impact crater that cannot be viewed directly from the Earth as it lies on the Moon's far side. It is located a couple of hundred kilometers to the southeast of the Mare Moscoviense, and due south of the smaller crater Nagaoka. It is a relatively isolated formation surrounded by a multitude of smaller impacts typical of the battered far side.

Rocca is a lunar impact crater that is located near the western limb of the Moon. It lies to the northwest of the flooded crater Crüger, and to the west of the Montes Cordillera. Just to the east-southeast of Rocca is the small Lacus Aestatis, a small lunar mare.

Van den Bos is a small lunar impact crater that is joined to the south-southwestern outer rim of the slightly larger crater Tamm. About one crater diameter to the west is Vil'ev. Farther away to the east is the prominent Chaplygin, and to the south-southwest lies Marconi. van den Bos is located on the far side of the Moon and cannot be viewed directly from the Earth.

Tamm is a shallow lunar impact crater. It is located to the west-northwest of the much larger and more prominent crater Chaplygin. Attached to the south-southwestern outer rim of Tamm is the smaller van den Bos. There is a gap in the southern rim where these two craters are joined together.

References

↑ "NASA - Floor of Tsiolkovskiy - Exploration Region of Interest".
↑ 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 11.2.
↑ The geologic history of the Moon, 1987, Wilhelms, Don E.; with sections by McCauley, John F.; Trask, Newell J. USGS Professional Paper: 1348. Figure 9.26 B (online)

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 2020-05-26.
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

The following L&PI topographic maps show portions of the Tsiolkovskiy crater:

Northern half	— LTO-101B2 Tsiolkovskij Borealis
Southern half	— LTO-101B3 Tsiolkovskij Australis
Northeast	— LTO-102A1 Patsaev
Southeast	— LTO-102A4 Fesnekov

High resolution lunar overflight video by Seán Doran, based on LRO data, that passes near Tsiolkovskiy about two thirds of the way through (see album for more); a longer version is on YouTube
The crater is also seen shortly after the 1:00 minute mark in this NASA video commemorating Apollo 13

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[1] "NASA - Floor of Tsiolkovskiy - Exploration Region of Interest".

[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 11.2.

[3] The geologic history of the Moon, 1987, Wilhelms, Don E.; with sections by McCauley, John F.; Trask, Newell J. USGS Professional Paper: 1348. Figure 9.26 B (online)

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