Gagarin is a large
lunar 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 is located in the southern hemisphere on the
far side 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 ...
. To the southwest is the crater
Pavlov and to the northeast lies
Keeler. Closer to the rim are the craters
Levi-Civita
Tullio Levi-Civita, (, ; 29 March 1873 – 29 December 1941) was an Italian mathematician, most famous for his work on absolute differential calculus (tensor calculus) and its applications to the theory of relativity, but who also made signific ...
to the southwest, and
Beijerinck
Martinus Willem Beijerinck (, 16 March 1851 – 1 January 1931) was a Dutch microbiologist and botanist who was one of the founders of virology and environmental microbiology. He is credited with the discovery of viruses, which he called "''c ...
to the north-northeast.
Isaev lies entirely within the northwest rim of Gagarin. In contrast with the floor of Gagarin, Isaev has a floor with a somewhat low
albedo
Albedo (; ) is the measure of the diffuse reflection of 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 that refl ...
.
Physical characteristics
The crater is named for
Yuri Gagarin
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin; Gagarin's first name is sometimes transliterated as ''Yuriy'', ''Youri'', or ''Yury''. (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into outer space. T ...
, the cosmonaut who was the first human in space and the first to orbit the Earth.
The six craters falling within the perimeter of Gagarin have also been named after pioneers of Russian aviation and astronautics, including
Isaev,
Grave
A grave is a location where a dead body (typically that of a human, although sometimes that of an animal) is buried or interred after a funeral. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as grav ...
,
Balandin,
Raspletin,
Kosberg, and
Andronov.
Gagarin has been heavily eroded by a long history of crater impacts. The worn rim forms a low, circular ridge around the somewhat bowl-shaped interior. The inner floor is covered by a multitude of crater impacts of various dimensions. Little if anything remains of a central ridge, if the crater ever possessed such a feature.
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 Gagarin.
See also
*
1772 Gagarin
1772 Gagarin ( ''prov. designation'': ) is a stony background asteroid from the central region of the asteroid belt, approximately 9 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 6 February 1968, by Russian astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh at the Cri ...
, asteroid
References
Bibliography
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External links
Lunar Topographic Orthophotomaps:
* Northwest Gagarin
LTO-102B2 Isaev
* Northeast Gagarin
LTO-103A1 Grave
* Southwest Gagarin
LTO-102B3 Andronov
* Southeast Gagarin
LTO-103A4 Raspletin
Impact craters on the Moon
Monuments and memorials to Yuri Gagarin