Wunda (crater)

Wunda is a bright feature at the top of this image of Umbriel.

7°54′S 273°36′E / 7.9°S 273.6°E / -7.9; 273.6[1]

Wunda is a large crater on the surface of Uranus' moon Umbriel.[2] It is 131 km in diameter and is located near the equator of Umbriel. The crater is named after Wunda, a dark spirit of Australian aboriginal mythology.[1]

Wunda has a prominent albedo feature on its floor, which takes the shape of a ring of bright material at least 10 km in radial width.[3] The reason for its brightness, which stands out from the very dark composition of the moon as a whole, is unknown.[2] It may be either a fresh impact deposit or a deposit of carbon dioxide ice, which formed when the radiolytically formed carbon dioxide migrated from all over the surface of Umbriel and got trapped inside relatively cold Wunda.[4]

  1. ^ a b USGS: Umbriel: Wunda.
  2. ^ a b Plescia 1987.
  3. ^ Smith Soderblom et al. 1986.
  4. ^ Sori, Michael M.; Bapst, Jonathan; Bramson, Ali M.; Byrne, Shane; Landis, Margaret E. (2017-07-01). "A Wunda-full world? Carbon dioxide ice deposits on Umbriel and other Uranian moons". Icarus. 290: 1–13. Bibcode:2017Icar..290....1S. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2017.02.029.