Aitken (crater)

Aitken
Aitken view by Apollo 17 from 121 km altitude
Coordinates16°48′S 173°24′E / 16.8°S 173.4°E / -16.8; 173.4
Diameter135 km
Depth6 km
Colongitude187° at sunrise
EponymRobert Aitken
Oblique view of Aitken (upper right, on the horizon), from Apollo 11. Aitken A is on the rim of Aitken, Atiken C is at left, and Aitken Y is at right, in front of Aitken.
Oblique view, also from Apollo 17
Lunar Orbiter 2 image of most of Aitken

Aitken /ˈeɪtkɪn/ is a large lunar impact crater that lies on the far side of the Moon, named for Robert Grant Aitken, an American astronomer specializing in binary stellar systems. It is located to the southeast of the crater Heaviside, and north of the unusual formation Van de Graaff. Attached to the southwest rim is Vertregt. To the southeast is the smaller Bergstrand.

The inner wall of Aitken is terraced and varies notably in width with the narrowest portion in the southwest. The crater Aitken  Z lies across the inner north wall. Just to the north of the rim is the small crater Aitken which is surrounded by an ejecta blanket of lighter-albedo material. The interior floor has been resurfaced in the past by a darker lava flow, especially in the southern half. There are also several small crater impacts on the eastern floor, an arcing central ridge line just to the east of the midpoint, and a line of smaller ridges in the western half.

This crater lies along the northern rim of the immense South Pole-Aitken Basin, which was named after this crater, and the southern lunar pole, two extreme points of the Basin.

Aitken was a target of observation on Apollo 17 due to the command module's orbit passing directly over it.[1]

  1. ^ Apollo 17 Preliminary Science Report (NASA SP-330), 1973