Orontius 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 crater ...
that lies in the heavily cratered 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 ...
's near side. It was named after 16th century French mathematician
Oronce Fine.
It is located to the northwest of the prominent ray crater
Tycho, and south and east of the large walled plain
Deslandres. The eastern part of the crater is overlain by the smaller crater
Huggins, which is overlain in turn on its eastern rim by the still smaller
Nasireddin, the trio forming a crater chain of diminishing dimensions. Joined to the southern rim is the crater
Saussure. To the southwest, just east of Tycho, is
Pictet.
The rim of Orontius is battered, worn, and overlain by a number of different craters. A pair of craters to the west have intruded into the crater wall, forming inward bulges. Little of the original wall remains nearly intact, with the south and southwestern rim having survived the erosion process better than the other wall sections.
The southwest half of the crater floor is still fairly flat and marred only by a few small craterlets. In the north of the crater, the distorted feature Orontius F forms a distorted, crater-like oval.
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 Orontius.
References
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{{Commonscat
Impact craters on the Moon