Virtanen (crater)

Virtanen
	Lunar Orbiter 2 image
Coordinates	15°38′N176°44′E / 15.64°N 176.74°E Coordinates: 15°38′N176°44′E / 15.64°N 176.74°E
Diameter	44 km
Depth	Unknown
Colongitude	187° at sunrise
Eponym	Artturi I. Virtanen

Last updated August 09, 2019

Virtanen is a lunar impact crater that is located to the northeast of the larger crater Sharonov, and to the east of Anderson. Virtanen lies on the far side of the Moon, and cannot be viewed directly from the Earth.

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.

Sharonov is a lunar impact crater that lies on the Moon's far side. It is located to the southeast of the crater Anderson, and to the southwest of the ray-covered Virtanen. To the south-southeast of Sharonov lies Valier.

This crater has a nearly circular rim, with a relatively narrow inner wall and a small rise near the interior midpoint. A small crater Virtanen F near the eastern rim lies at the focus of a small ray system that covers much of Virtanen and its surroundings. The rays are wispy in nature and somewhat asymmetrical, with the distribution being much more expansive to the west. At the origin of the rays is a bright patch of higher-albedo surface.

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.

Albedo is the measure of the diffuse reflection of solar radiation out of the total solar radiation received by an astronomical body. It is dimensionless and measured on a scale from 0 to 1.

The crater lies within the Freundlich-Sharonov Basin.

The Freundlich-Sharonov Basin is a Pre-Nectarian impact basin on the far side of the moon. It is named after the younger craters Freundlich near the northwest margin and Sharonov near the southwest margin. It lies east of Mare Moscoviense basin and northwest of Korolev basin.

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 Virtanen.

Virtanen	Coordinates	Diameter, km
B	17°50′N177°54′E / 17.83°N 177.9°E / 17.83; 177.9 (Virtanen B)	27.3
C	17°17′N178°12′E / 17.28°N 178.2°E / 17.28; 178.2 (Virtanen C)	19.7
F	15°47′N177°19′E / 15.79°N 177.32°E / 15.79; 177.32 (Virtanen F)	11.6
J	14°02′N178°04′E / 14.03°N 178.06°E / 14.03; 178.06 (Virtanen J)	19.9
Z	16°45′N176°40′E / 16.75°N 176.66°E / 16.75; 176.66 (Virtanen Z)	34.1

Related Research Articles

Anderson is a lunar impact crater that is located on the far side of the Moon. It is located to the northwest of the crater Sharonov, and the satellite crater Sharanov X is attached to the southeast rim of Anderson. To the northeast is the peculiar formation Buys-Ballot, and to the east-southeast lies the larger crater Spencer Jones.

Fabry is a large lunar impact crater of the form termed a walled plain. It is located on the far side of the Moon, just beyond the northeastern limb. Parts of this area are sometimes brought into view by the effects of libration, but the terrain is seen from the edge and so not much in the way of detail can be observed.

Barbier is a lunar impact crater that is located on the southern hemisphere on the far side of the Moon. It forms a matched pair with Cyrano to the north-northwest, and it lies to the southeast of the huge walled plain Gagarin. Southwest of Barbier is the crater Sierpinski, and to the southeast is the Mare Ingenii.

Bredikhin is a lunar impact crater that is located on the far side of the Moon. It lies just to the west of the crater Mitra, and northeast of Raimond.

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.

Moore is an impact crater that is located on the far side of the Moon. Like much of the far side, Moore is located in a region that has been saturated by impacts. Nearby craters of note are Larmor to the south-southwest, and Parsons about the same distance to the west.

Chebyshev is a large lunar impact crater that lies in the southern hemisphere on the far side of the Moon. The somewhat smaller crater Langmuir is intruding into the east-southeastern rim of Chebyshev, forming a chain of large craters with Brouwer on Langmuir's eastern rim.

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.

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.

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.

Comrie is a lunar impact crater. It is located on the rugged far side of the Moon relative to the Earth, beyond the western limb. Nearby craters of note include Ohm to the south-southwest, Shternberg to the southwest, and Parenago to the northeast.

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.

Dante is a lunar impact crater that is located on the far side of the Moon. It lies in the northern hemisphere exactly opposite the prime meridian facing the Earth. The nearest craters of note are Larmor to the north and Morse to the southeast. To the southwest is the oddly shaped Buys-Ballot.

Freundlich is a lunar impact crater that is located on the far side of the Moon. It lies midway between the craters Trumpler to the north-northwest and the irregular Buys-Ballot to the south-southeast. This crater has a circular rim that is more heavily eroded at the northern and southern ends. Groups of craters lie across the floor to the southeast and the north, and individual small craters lie elsewhere within the interior. The crater is named after Erwin Freundlich.

Morse is a lunar impact crater that is located on the far side of the Moon and cannot be seen directly from the Earth. It lies about one crater diameter to the southwest of the larger Fitzgerald. To the west-northwest of Morse is Dante.

Šafařík is a small lunar impact crater on the far side of the Moon. It lies due north of the crater Tiselius and to the east-southeast of Sharonov. This is a worn and eroded crater with smaller impacts along the rim to the east and northwest. The remainder of the worn rim and the interior are relatively featureless.

Spencer Jones is a lunar impact crater on the Moon's far side. It is a roughly circular feature with a rim edge that is only moderately eroded. The inner wall of Spencer Jones is wider than elsewhere. The interior floor is relatively level with a low ridge offset to the south of the midpoint. Attached to the southwestern outer rim is the small satellite crater Spencer Jones Q.

Valier is a lunar impact crater that lies on the far side of the Moon. It is nearly attached to the western rim of the crater Tiselius. To the north-northwest lies the larger Sharonov, to the south-southwest is Coriolis, and west of Valier is Dufay.

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 2017-09-07.
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.
Moore, Patrick (2001). On the Moon. Sterling Publishing Co. ISBN 978-0-304-35469-6.
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.

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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Lunar Orbiter 2 image
Coordinates	15°38′N176°44′E / 15.64°N 176.74°E / 15.64; 176.74 Coordinates: 15°38′N176°44′E / 15.64°N 176.74°E / 15.64; 176.74
Diameter	44 km
Depth	Unknown
Colongitude	187° at sunrise
Eponym	Artturi I. Virtanen