Carolan is a crater 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 ...

. Its name was suggested by an

Irishman The Irish ( ga, Muintir na hÉireann or ''Na hÉireannaigh'') are an ethnic group and nation native to the island of Ireland, who share a common history and culture. There have been humans in Ireland for about 33,000 years, and it has been co ...

, Fergal Donnelly, and two

Americans Americans are the Citizenship of the United States, citizens and United States nationality law, nationals of the United States, United States of America.; ; Although direct citizens and nationals make up the majority of Americans, many Multi ...

, Joseph Brusseau and Deane Morrison, in a naming contest which was eventually adopted by the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreac ...

(IAU) on 2015. Carolan is named for the Irish composer and performer

Turlough O'Carolan Turlough O'Carolan ( ga, Toirdhealbhach Ó Cearbhalláin ; 167025 March 1738) was a blind Celtic harper, composer and singer in Ireland whose great fame is due to his gift for melodic composition. Although not a composer in the classical sense, ...

, who lived from 1670 to 1738 C.E. The craters

Kulthum Kulthum or Kulsum () is an Arabic female given name. It means, "someone with a chubby face" or someone who comprehend people . It is feminized as "Umm Kulthum" (Kulthum's mother). People who had this name: *Umm Kulthum *Kalsoom Nawaz Sharif, the wi ...

Enheduanna Enheduanna ( sux, , also transliterated as , , or variants) was the priestess of the moon god Nanna (Sīn) in the Sumerian city-state of Ur in the reign of her father, Sargon of Akkad. She was likely appointed by her father as the leader of th ...

, Karsh, and

Rivera Rivera () is the capital of Rivera Department of Uruguay. The border with Brazil joins it with the Brazilian city of Santana do Livramento, which is only a street away from it, at the north end of Route 5. Together, they form an urban area of aro ...

were also named as part of the contest.

S band The S band is a designation by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for a part of the microwave band of the electromagnetic spectrum covering frequencies from 2 to 4 gigahertz (GHz). Thus it crosses the convention ...

radar data from the

Arecibo Observatory The Arecibo Observatory, also known as the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC) and formerly known as the Arecibo Ionosphere Observatory, is an observatory in Barrio Esperanza, Arecibo, Puerto Rico owned by the US National Science F ...

collected between 1999 and 2005 indicates a radar-bright area along the southern interior of Carolan, which is probably indicative of a water ice deposit, and lies within the permanently shadowed part of the crater.Chabot, N. L., D. J. Lawrence, G. A. Neumann, W. C. Feldman, and D. A. Paige, 2018. Mercury's Polar Deposits. In ''Mercury: The View After

MESSENGER ''MESSENGER'' was a NASA robotic space probe that orbited the planet Mercury between 2011 and 2015, studying Mercury's chemical composition, geology, and magnetic field. The name is a backronym for "Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geoche ...

'' edited by Sean C. Solomon, Larry R. Nittler, and Brian J. Anderson. Cambridge Planetary Science. Chapter 13, Figure 13.2.

's Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) was used to measure surface reflectance of the surface of the planet, and the radar-bright material is covered by low-reflectance material.New evidence for surface water ice in small‐scale cold traps and in three large craters at the north polar region of Mercury from the Mercury Laser Altimeter
Ariel N. Deutsch, Gregory A. Neumann, James W. Head. 14 September 2017. ''Geophysical Research Letters'', Volume 44, Issue 18.
doi.org/10.1002/2017GL074723
/ref> Carolan lies to the southwest of the large crater

Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer ...

References

Impact craters on Mercury {{Mercury-planet-stub