ESA Science & Technology - Crater Lomonosov

This image, taken by the advanced Moon Imaging Experiment (AMIE) on board SMART-1, shows crater Lomonosov on the Moon's far side. AMIE obtained the image on 30 January 2006 at a distance of about 2100 kilometres from the surface, with a ground resolution of 190 metres per pixel. The imaged area is centred at a latitude of 27.8° North and a longitude of 98.6° East. North is up.

Crater Lomonosov is a nice example of a large crater (92 kilometres in diameter) which was filled by lava after the impact, thus exhibiting a flat floor. The terraced walls indicate slumping: sliding of the rocks downwards under gravity after the end of the impact. The small craters inside Lomonosov are the result of impacts into this lava floor which happened after the formation of the large crater.

Lomonosov is centred at 27.3° North and 98.0° East and is the southern most crater in a group of three overlapping craters. Lomonosov overlays the southern rim of the large (107 km diameter) crater Maxwell which lies directly north of it and is centred at 30.2° North and 98.9° East. Crater Maxwell in turn overlaps the larger crater Richardson, which has a diameter of 141 km and is centred at 31.1° North 100.5° East. The rim of the Maxwell crater reaches to nearly the centre of crater Richardson.

Looking closely to the top half of Lomonosov in this image, one can see streaks of brighter material on the crater floor. This type of feature can be seen frequently in this area of the Moon and are ejecta deposits of the small young crater Giordano Bruno which lies about 300 kilometres northeast of crater Lumonosov. Crater Giordano Bruno is 22 km in diameter, and imaging from the lunar far side shows that it lies at the centre of a ray system of bright ejecta material.

Crater Lomonosov is named in honour of Mikhail Vassilievitch Lomonosov, a Russian physicist and writer (1711 - 1765). He was professor of physics at Saint Petersburg University and devoted his live to the study of the properties of matter and electricity.