Hitomaro is a crater on Mercury. It has a diameter of 105 kilometers. Its name was 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) in 1976. Hitomaro is named for the Japanese poet

Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (柿本人麻呂 or 柿本人麿; – ) was a Japanese ''waka'' poet and aristocrat of the late Asuka period. He was the most prominent of the poets included in the ''Man'yōshū'', the oldest ''waka'' anthology, but ap ...

, who lived from the 650s to roughly 709. The impactor that created Hitomaro crater struck the west side of an older and larger peak ring basin (unnamed). The crater itself is unusual in that its central peak complex is offset to the west. It also possesses a ray system that has two dark lobes to the north and south, and lighter portions to the east and west. There are also hollows on the crater floor. Hitomaro is located west of the much larger

Sanai Hakim Abul-Majd Majdūd ibn Ādam Sanā'ī Ghaznavi ( fa, ), more commonly known as Sanai, was a Persian poet from Ghazni who lived his life in the Ghaznavid Empire which is now located in Afghanistan. He was born in 1080 and died between 113 ...

crater. The crater Dvorák is to the northeast of Hitomaro.

Balagtas Francisco Balagtas y de la Cruz (April 2, 1788 – February 20, 1862), commonly known as Francisco Balagtas and also as Francisco Baltasar, was a Filipino Tagalog litterateur and poet during the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. He is ...

, Kenkō, and

Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism ...

are to the south.

Views

Hitomaro crater MESSENGER WAC IGF to RGB.jpg, Approximate color view by MESSENGER, with Hitomaro near center. Hitomaro crater EN0212635812M.jpg, Oblique view of the central crater. Some of the irregular, bright depressions are hollows. Hitomaro crater EN0253621005M.jpg, View of most of the crater at a high sun angle, also showing the hollows

References

Impact craters on Mercury {{Mercury-planet-stub