Richardson (lunar crater)

This article is about the crater on the moon. For the Martian crater, see Richardson (Martian crater).
Richardson
LRO image
Coordinates31°06′N 100°30′E / 31.1°N 100.5°E / 31.1; 100.5
Diameter141 km
DepthUnknown
Colongitude262° at sunrise
EponymOwen W. Richardson
Oblique view from Apollo 14, facing northwest

Richardson is a large lunar impact crater located on the Moon's far side, just behind the eastern limb. It lies to the south of the huge walled plain Harkhebi, and to the east-southeast of the crater Vestine. Just to the northeast is Szilard, and to the southeast is Artamonov.

A substantial portion of the crater is overlain by Maxwell, which lies across the rim to the southwest. The northeastern rim of Maxwell reaches the approximate midpoint of Richardson, and together with the outer rampart covers nearly half the interior floor. The remainder of the rim of Richardson is worn and eroded, with Richardson W intruding into the northwestern rim and Richardson E lying along the eastern side.

The surviving interior floor of Richardson is relatively level, but marked with a number of small craterlets. The rim and interior floor is covered by a number of wispy deposits from the Giordano Bruno impact, located just to the north-northeast.

Prior to formal naming in 1979 by the IAU,[1] this crater was known as Crater 114.[2]

  1. ^ Richardson, Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN)
  2. ^ Lunar Farside Chart (LFC-1A)