Deslandres is the heavily worn and distorted remains of a

lunar Lunar most commonly means "of or relating to the Moon". Lunar may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Lunar'' (series), a series of video games * "Lunar" (song), by David Guetta * "Lunar", a song by Priestess from the 2009 album ''Prior t ...

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 craters ...

. It is located to the southeast of the

Mare Nubium Mare Nubium (Latin ''nūbium'', the "sea of clouds") is a lunar mare in the Nubium basin on the Moon's near side. The mare is located just to the southeast of Oceanus Procellarum. Formation The basin containing Mare Nubium is believed to ha ...

, in the rugged southern highlands of the Moon. In dimension it is the third-largest crater formation on the visible Moon, being beaten only by

Clavius Christopher Clavius, SJ (25 March 1538 – 6 February 1612) was a Jesuit German mathematician, head of mathematicians at the Collegio Romano, and astronomer who was a member of the Vatican commission that accepted the proposed calendar inve ...

(231 km) and by the 303-kilometer-diameter walled plain Bailly. The northern and eastern parts of the floor display a relatively level surface, but it is pock-marked with numerous craters. There is a small region of mare material, due to

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

lava Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or un ...

, along the eastern interior floor. The crater

Walther Walther is a masculine given name and a surname. It is a German form of Walter, which is derived from the Old High German ''Walthari'', containing the elements ''wald'' -"power", "brightness" or "forest" and ''hari'' -"warrior". The name was fir ...

is attached to the remnant of the eastern rim, and

Ball A ball is a round object (usually spherical, but can sometimes be ovoid) with several uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. Balls can also be used f ...

intrudes into the southwestern rim. The crater remnant Lexell has broken across the southeastern rim, forming a "harbor" in the crater floor due to the wide gap in its northern rim. The irregular crater

Regiomontanus Johannes Müller von Königsberg (6 June 1436 – 6 July 1476), better known as Regiomontanus (), was a mathematician, astrologer and astronomer of the German Renaissance, active in Vienna, Buda and Nuremberg. His contributions were instrumental ...

is attached to the northeast rim of Deslandres. The crater

Hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...

lies entirely within the western rim. The satellite crater Hell Q lies at the center of a patch of higher

albedo Albedo (; ) is the measure of the diffuse reflection of sunlight, solar radiation out of the total solar radiation and measured on a scale from 0, corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation, to 1, corresponding to a body ...

surface located in the eastern half of Deslandres. Around the time of the

full moon The full moon is the lunar phase when the Moon appears fully illuminated from Earth's perspective. This occurs when Earth is located between the Sun and the Moon (when the ecliptic coordinate system, ecliptic longitudes of the Sun and Moon opp ...

this feature is one of the brightest spots on the lunar surface. The light hue indicates a relatively youthful feature in lunar geological terms. This patch is sometimes referred to as "Cassini's bright spot", as it was first mapped by Cassini in 1672 at the

Paris Observatory The Paris Observatory (french: Observatoire de Paris ), a research institution of the Paris Sciences et Lettres University, is the foremost astronomical observatory of France, and one of the largest astronomical centers in the world. Its histor ...

. This feature is so heavily eroded and degraded by overlapping impacts that it was not actually recognized as a crater formation until the 20th century. The name for this formation was suggested by Eugène M. Antoniadi in 1942, and was passed during the general assembly of the

IAU 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, outreach ...

in 1948. According to one version,

Luna 5 ''Luna 5'', or ''E-6 No.10'' (Ye-6 series), was an unmanned Soviet spacecraft intended to land on the Moon as part of the Luna programme. It was intended to become the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on the Moon, however its retrorocke ...

impacted lunar surface in this crater (). The first released images from the

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is a NASA robotic spacecraft currently orbiting the Moon in an eccentric polar mapping orbit. Data collected by LRO have been described as essential for planning NASA's future human and robotic missions t ...

in 2009 were of the area in the southern part of this crater.

References

* * * * * * * * * * * * * Impact craters on the Moon {{Craters on the Moon: C-F