Stadius is a ghostly remnant of an ancient

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 that has been nearly obliterated by basaltic lava flows. It was named after Flemish astronomer

Johannes Stadius Johannes Stadius or Estadius (Dutch: ''Jan Van Ostaeyen''; French: ''Jean Stade'') (ca. 1 May 1527 – 17 June 1579), was a Flemish astronomer, astrologer, and mathematician. He was one of the important late 16th-century makers of ephemerides, ...

. It lies to the southwest of the much younger crater

Eratosthenes Eratosthenes of Cyrene (; grc-gre, Ἐρατοσθένης ; – ) was a Greek polymath: a mathematician, geographer, poet, astronomer, and music theorist. He was a man of learning, becoming the chief librarian at the Library of Alexandria ...

, at the north edge of Mare Insularum where the mare joins

Sinus Aestuum Sinus Aestuum (Latin ''sinus aestuum'' "Seething Bay") forms a northeastern extension to Mare Insularum. It is centered at selenographic coordinates 12.1° N, 8.3° W, and it lies within a diameter of about 320 km. The Sinus Aestuum is a l ...

. To the west is the prominent ray crater Copernicus, and multiple secondary craters from the Copernican ejecta cover this area. To the northwest is a chain of craters that continue in a roughly linear formation until reaching

Mare Imbrium Mare Imbrium (Latin ''imbrium'', the "Sea of Showers" or "Sea of Rains", "Sea of Tears") is a vast lava plain within the Imbrium Basin on the Moon and is one of the larger craters in the Solar System. The Imbrium Basin formed from the colli ...

Only the northwestern rim of Stadius remains nearly intact, and it joins with a north-running ridge line that reaches the western rampart of Eratosthenes. The remainder of the formation forms a ghostly trace of the original rim, created from a few rises in the surface, and there is no indication of a central peak. The flat crater floor is pock-marked by craterlets, many of which were generated by secondary impacts from the creation of Copernicus.

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 Stadius.

Popular culture

Within the Sega CD

RPG RPG may refer to: Military * Rocket-propelled grenade, a shoulder-launched anti-tank weapon **''Ruchnoi Protivotankoviy Granatomyot'' (Russian: ''Ручной Противотанковый Гранатомёт''), hand-held anti-tank grenade laun ...

'' Lunar: The Silver Star'' (and all subsequent

remakes A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the sam ...

) there is a region called the Stadius Zone, which is named after the Stadius crater.

References

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External links

Stadius at The Moon Wiki
* - featuring three released photos from Luna 19 from 1971 - it includes Stadius in the third one * * {{cite web, last = Wood , first = Chuck , date = January 26, 2007 , url = http://www.lpod.org/?m=20070126 , title = Before and After , publisher = Lunar Photo of the Day , url-status=dead, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110614233616/http://www.lpod.org/?m=20070126, archive-date=June 14, 2011 Impact craters on the Moon