&sq=Qlik&lang=&file=File:Main_erlanger_crater_large.jpg) Erlanger at local sunrise | |
| Coordinates | 86°56′N 28°37′E / 86.94°N 28.62°E |
|---|---|
| Diameter | 9.9 km |
| Eponym | Joseph Erlanger |
Erlanger is a very deep lunar impact crater that lies near the north pole of the Moon. Due to its position near the lunar north pole (and given that the Moon's axis is only tilted about 1.5°),[1] sunlight only rarely falls on the bottom, and the 2008 Chandrayaan-1 probe hoped to find that ice from comet impacts had accumulated there.[2] Erlanger is one of the Moon's permanently shadowed craters.[3]
The crater was named by the International Astronometrical Union on January 22, 2009, after the American physiologist and 1944 Nobel Prize winner Joseph Erlanger.[4]
- ^ Article about Erlanger at OuterSpaceUniverse.org
- ^ Article about Erlanger Archived 2009-08-30 at the Wayback Machine by Phil Plait
- ^ "Eternal Darkness Near the North Pole | Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera".
- ^ "Erlanger (crater)". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology Research Program.