Gardner (crater)

Gardner
Apollo 17 Mapping Camera image
Coordinates17°42′N 33°48′E / 17.7°N 33.8°E / 17.7; 33.8
Diameter18 km
Depth3.0 km
Colongitude327° at sunrise
EponymIrvine C. Gardner
The crater area (top right) in selenochromatic Image (Si).
Oblique view from Apollo 15
The Gardner Megadome, from Apollo 17

Gardner is a small lunar impact crater in the northeast part of the Moon. It was named after an American physicist Irvine Clifton Gardner in 1976.[1] It lies due east of the crater Vitruvius, in a section of rough terrain north of the Mare Tranquillitatis. Gardner was previously designated Vitruvius A before being given its present name by the IAU. To the northeast of Gardner is the larger crater Maraldi.

It is a circular crater with sloping inner walls and an interior floor that occupies about half the total crater diameter. The southern half of the floor has a slight rise before reaching the inner wall. The crater is not significantly eroded, and the outer rim is relatively sharp and well-defined. The most distinctive feature is a row of four rounded hills along the northern floor of the crater.

To the south is an elevated area unofficially known as the Gardner Megadome.[2] In the vicinity of the dome are satellite craters including Vitruvius B, H, and T, and Maraldi D.

  1. ^ "Gardner (crater)". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology Research Program.
  2. ^ The Lamont - Gardner Megadome Alignment: A Lunar Volcano-Tectonic Structure? Charles A. Wood, with images by Wes Higgins, KC Pau and Giorgio Mengoli, Managua Office, Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ 85719. PDF