Censorinus crater west rim boulders 5063 h2

Censorinus is a 3.8 km

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 depression (geology), depression in the surface of a solid astronomical body formed by the hypervelocity impact event, impact of a smaller object. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal c ...

located on a rise to the southeast of the

Mare Tranquillitatis Mare Tranquillitatis (Latin for Sea of Tranquillity or Sea of Tranquility) is a lunar mare that sits within the Tranquillitatis basin on the Moon. It contains Tranquility Base, the first location on another celestial body to be visited by huma ...

. It is named after the

ancient Roman In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

writer

Censorinus Censorinus () was a Roman grammarian and miscellaneous writer. Name From its grammatical form, Censorinus is presumably his cognomen, the shared surname of a branch of a Roman family (). The cognomen would typically be used by those descende ...

. To the northwest is the crater Maskelyne. Censorinus is distinguished by an area of high-

albedo Albedo ( ; ) is the fraction of sunlight that is Diffuse reflection, diffusely reflected by a body. It is measured on a scale from 0 (corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation) to 1 (corresponding to a body that reflects ...

material surrounding the rim. This makes the feature highly prominent when the Sun is at a high angle, and it is one of the brightest objects on the visible

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

. Bright streaks radiate away radially from the crater, and contrast with the darker

lunar mare The lunar maria ( ; mare ) are large, dark, basaltic plains on Earth's Moon, formed by lava flowing into ancient impact basins. They are less reflective than the "highlands" as a result of their iron-rich composition, and hence appear dark to ...

. This formation has a sharp-edged, raised rim and a symmetrical, cup-shaped interior. Close-up photographs of this crater by

Lunar Orbiter 5 Lunar Orbiter 5, the last of the "Lunar Orbiter series", was designed to take additional Project Apollo, Apollo and Surveyor program, Surveyor landing site photography and to take broad survey images of unphotographed parts of the Moon's far sid ...

show many large blocks lying along the sloping outer

rampart Rampart may refer to: * Rampart (fortification), a defensive wall or bank around a castle, fort or settlement Rampart may also refer to: * LAPD Rampart Division, a division of the Los Angeles Police Department ** Rampart scandal, a blanket ter ...

. The surface near the crater is hummocky from the deposited

ejecta Ejecta (; ) are particles ejected from an area. In volcanology, in particular, the term refers to particles including pyroclastic rock, pyroclastic materials (tephra) that came out of a explosive eruption, volcanic explosion and magma eruption v ...

. The crater is otherwise undistinguished. The vicinity of Censorinus was once considered for an early

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

landing site. El-Baz, Farouk, 1968. ''Geologic Characteristics of the Nine Lunar Landing Mission Sites Recommended by the Group for Lunar Exploration Planning''. Bellcomm, Inc. TR-68-340-1. The proposed landing point would have been near the northwest rim, close enough for astronauts to walk to the rim to observe the crater interior and sample boulders of ejecta at various distances from the rim.

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 Censorinus. The following craters have been renamed by the

IAU The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...

. * Censorinus F — ''See''

Leakey (crater) Leakey is a small, undistinguished lunar impact crater that is located in an area of rough terrain in the eastern part of the Moon. It was named after British archaeologist Louis Leakey. The immediate area is not notable for crater features, a ...

. Censorinus C crater AS16-P-4502.jpg, Censorinus E

References

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External links

* Lunar Photo of the Day,
Land of Manna
, October 5, 2006, showing Censorinus, and Censorius C, noted as similar to Gaudibert crater {{Craters on the Moon: C-F Impact craters on the Moon