Buch is an old, worn crater that is located in the rugged southern highlands of 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 ...

. It was named after German geologist

Leopold von Buch Christian Leopold von Buch (26 April 1774 – 4 March 1853), usually cited as Leopold von Buch, was a German geologist and paleontologist born in Stolpe an der Oder (now a part of Angermünde, Brandenburg) and is remembered as one of the most im ...

. It lies to the northeast of the large crater Maurolycus, and the comparably sized crater Büsching is attached to the northeast rim. The crater rim is slightly elongated in the northeastern direction, and forms an egg-shaped depression in the surface. The rim has been eroded by many lesser impacts so that the edge is rounded and worn down, and the crater forms only a low depression in the ground. Within the crater the floor is relatively flat and featureless, with no central peak at the midpoint. There is only a small craterlet near the northwest rim. It has been noted (by

Shoemaker Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand, often by groups of shoemakers, or cobblers (also known as '' cordwainers''). In the 18th century, dozens or even hundreds of masters, journeymen ...

and others) that the satellite crater Buch B is unusual in that it possesses both a dark halo of material around the rim and appears to have formed some dark rays. Early speculation was that this may be

volcanic A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...

in nature, but it was later demonstrated to be a typical

impact crater An impact crater is a circular depression in the surface of a solid astronomical object formed by the hypervelocity impact of a smaller object. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal collapse, impact crater ...

that was formed over a pocket of darker material.

Satellite craters

By convention these features are identified on lunar maps by placing the letter on the side of the crater midpoint that is closest to Buch.

References

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External links

* Chuck Wood'
Lunar Picture of the Day
for March 12, 2006. Impact craters on the Moon {{Craters on the Moon: A–B