Beethoven Basin topography JMARS Colorized Shade 2km

Beethoven is a

crater Crater may refer to: Landforms *Impact crater, a depression caused by two celestial bodies impacting each other, such as a meteorite hitting a planet *Explosion crater, a hole formed in the ground produced by an explosion near or below the surfac ...

at latitude 20°S, longitude 124°W on

Mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...

. It is 630 km in diameter and was named after

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

. It is the eleventh largest named impact crater in the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...

and the third largest on Mercury (after

Caloris Caloris Planitia is a planitia, plain within a large impact basin on Mercury (planet), Mercury, informally named Caloris, about in diameter. It is one of the List of largest craters in the Solar System, largest impact basins in the Solar System. ...

and

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consid ...

). Unlike many basins of similar size on the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

, such as the Orientale Basin, Beethoven is not multi-ringed. Remnant ejecta blankets around parts of the Beethoven are subdued in appearance and their margins poorly defined in places. The crater wall ( rim) of Beethoven is buried by its ejecta blanket and by plains materials and is barely visible. The floor of the basin is covered with intermediate smooth plains material, which has the same reflectance as the exterior intermediate terrain. However, there are no

wrinkle ridge A wrinkle ridge is a type of feature commonly found on lunar maria, or basalt plains. These features are low, sinuous ridges formed on the mare surface that can extend for up to several hundred kilometers. Wrinkle ridges are tectonic features cr ...

s or

graben In geology, a graben () is a depressed block of the crust of a planet or moon, bordered by parallel normal faults. Etymology ''Graben'' is a loan word from German, meaning 'ditch' or 'trench'. The word was first used in the geologic contex ...

inside the basin like those in Caloris. Spudis and Prosser have suggested that Beethoven may possibly be late c3 in age or as old as early c2, which means that it is older than the

Caloris Basin Caloris Planitia is a plain within a large impact basin on Mercury, informally named Caloris, about in diameter. It is one of the largest impact basins in the Solar System. "Calor" is Latin for "heat" and the basin is so-named because the Sun ...

. The depth of Beethoven is estimated to be from the

stereo Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...

derived digital elevation models based on ''

Mariner 10 ''Mariner 10'' was an American Robotic spacecraft, robotic space probe launched by NASA on 3 November 1973, to fly by the planets Mercury (planet), Mercury and Venus. It was the first spacecraft to perform flybys of multiple planets. ''Ma ...

'' images of the planet. This is significantly less than the depth of lunar basins of the similar size indicating that Beethoven probably has relaxed from its post impact shape. There is also a broad topographic rise in the north–west margin of Beethoven. A scarp that is roughly parallel with the west rim of Beethoven is known as

Duyfken Rupes List of geological features on Mercury is an itemization of mountains, valleys, craters and other landform features of the planet Mercury. Different types of features are named after different things: Mercurian ridges are called dorsa, and are nam ...

. The crater Bello lies within the eas half of Beethoven, and the crater

Sayat-Nova Sayat-Nova (Armenian: Սայեաթ-Նովայ ( сlassical), Սայաթ-Նովա (reformed); ka, საიათნოვა; ; ; born Harutyun Sayatyan; 14 June 1712 – 22 September 1795) was an Armenian poet, musician and ''ashugh'', who ...

lies across the southern rim. The large, fresh crater Bartók is to the southwest of Beethoven.

Notes

References

{{Ludwig van Beethoven Impact craters on Mercury Beethoven quadrangle