Korolev 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 ...
of the walled plain or basin type. It is named for Soviet rocket engineer
Sergei Korolev
Sergei Pavlovich Korolev (russian: Сергей Павлович Королёв, Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov, sʲɪrˈɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪtɕ kərɐˈlʲɵf, Ru-Sergei Pavlovich Korolev.ogg; ukr, Сергій Павлович Корольов, ...
. It lies 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 ...
, and the northern part of its floor crosses the lunar equator. Notable nearby craters include
Galois just to the southeast,
Das to the south-southeast,
Doppler attached to the southern rim, and
Kibal'chich to the northeast.
Rays
Ray may refer to:
Fish
* Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea
* Ray (fish fin anatomy), a bony or horny spine on a fin
Science and mathematics
* Ray (geometry), half of a line proceeding from an initial point
* Ray (gra ...
of the crater
Crookes
Crookes is a suburb of the City of Sheffield, England, about west of the city centre. It borders Broomhill to the south, Walkley and Crookesmoor to the east and open countryside around the River Rivelin to the north. The population of the ...
(to the southwest) cover parts of the basin.
The outer rim of Korolev is heavily worn and eroded, with a multitude of small craters lying across the wide rim and the low inner wall. The interior floor is relatively flat compared to the surrounding terrain, but is pock-marked with many craters of varying sizes. The most notable of these interior craters are Korolev M in the southern part of the floor, and Korolev D next to the northeast rim.
Within the interior of Korolev is the remains of a second, inner ring. This is roughly half the diameter of the outer wall, and is the most intact in the eastern half. Here it forms a curving arc of ridges across the floor. At the midpoint of the formation, there is nothing resembling a central peak. However the craters Korolev B, Korolev T, and Korolev L lie within the diameter of the inner ring.
A small crater to the southwest of Korolev L was a designated control point, ''CP-1'', during the
Apollo 8 mission. Measurements taken from orbit on this point improved the accuracy of mapping of the lunar far side, although they were likely surpassed by subsequent Apollo missions.
Until formal naming in 1970 by the
IAU, the crater was known as ''Basin XV''.
[Lunar Landmark Locations - Apollo 8, 10, 11, and 12 Missions. NASA technical note D-6082. Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, Texas. November 1970. Figure 2.]
Korolev lies to the south of the similar-sized
Dirichlet-Jackson Basin.
File:Korolev basin topo.jpg, Topographic map
File:Korolev basin GRAIL gravity.jpg, Gravity map based on GRAIL
The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) was an American lunar science mission in NASA's Discovery Program which used high-quality gravitational field mapping of the Moon to determine its interior structure. The two small spacecraf ...
Views
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 Korolev.
See also
*
1855 Korolev, minor planet
*
Korolev (Martian crater)
References
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{{commons category, Korolev (crater)
Impact craters on the Moon
Sergei Korolev