Dufay is 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 ...

that is located on the

far side of the Moon The far side of the Moon is the lunar hemisphere that always faces away from Earth, opposite to the Near side of the Moon, near side, because of synchronous rotation in the Moon's orbit. Compared to the near side, the far side's terrain is ru ...

. It lies about one crater diameter to the east of the large walled plain Mandel'shtam. To the northwest is the crater Papaleksi and to the east is Valier. The rim of this crater is heavily worn by impacts, and several small craterlets lie along the southern edge. The inner wall is somewhat wider on the western side when compared to the east and southeast. The interior floor is relatively level and featureless.

Albedo Anomaly

To the northeast of Dufay is a bright

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 ...

anomaly that does not correlate with any topographic features. The lunar surface at the anomaly is not atypical under low sun angles. The albedo anomaly is associated with an enhancement in

Thorium Thorium is a weakly radioactive metallic chemical element with the symbol Th and atomic number 90. Thorium is silvery and tarnishes black when it is exposed to air, forming thorium dioxide; it is moderately soft and malleable and has a high me ...

.N. E. Petro. Association Between Small Thorium Enhancements, Silicic Volcanism, and Enhanced OH/H₂O as Measured by the Moon Mineralogy Mapper. Annual Meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group, 2014

/ref> File:Normal dufay-large.jpg, Dufay is at center, and the elongate white patch above right of center is the anomaly. The bright feature to the left is Mandel'shtam F crater and its ray system. File:AS11-43-6416.jpg, The albedo anomaly is visible above center in this view from

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, an ...

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 Dufay. File:Dufay X crater AS16-M-0025.jpg, Dufay X crater

References

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