The Coulomb-Sarton Basin is a

Pre-Nectarian The pre-Nectarian period of the lunar geologic timescale runs from 4.533 billion years ago (the time of the initial formation of the Moon) to 3.920 billion years ago, when the Nectaris Basin was formed by a large impact. It is followed by the Necta ...

impact basin 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 craters ...

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 ...

. It is named after the crater

Coulomb The coulomb (symbol: C) is the unit of electric charge in the International System of Units (SI). In the present version of the SI it is equal to the electric charge delivered by a 1 ampere constant current in 1 second and to elementary char ...

northeast of the center of the basin and the smaller crater Sarton just south of the center. The basin is not obvious on the lunar surface. There are only small fragments of inner rings and a rim, and the most indicative topographic feature is a smooth, low plain at the center. At the center is a mass concentration (mascon), or gravitational high. The mascon was first identified by Doppler tracking of the

Lunar Prospector ''Lunar Prospector'' was the third mission selected by NASA for full development and construction as part of the Discovery Program. At a cost of $62.8 million, the 19-month mission was designed for a low polar orbit investigation of the Moon, ...

spacecraft. The existence of the basin was confirmed by the

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 ...

spacecraft. Other craters within the basin include Weber and Kramers. At the approximate margin of the basin are

Dyson Dyson may refer to: * Dyson (surname), people with the surname Dyson * Dyson (company), a Singaporean multinational home appliances company founded by James Dyson * Dyson (crater), a crater on the Moon * Dyson (operating system), a Unix general-pur ...

Ellison Ellison is a surname and given name. It may derive from "Son of Elias" in Norwegian. Ellison can also be spelled Ellisson, Elison, Elisson, Ellyson, Ellysson, Elyson, and Elysson. People with the surname * Andy Ellison, British musician * At ...

, Stefan, Wegener,

Wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...

Landau Landau ( pfl, Landach), officially Landau in der Pfalz, is an autonomous (''kreisfrei'') town surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße ("Southern Wine Route") district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town (since 1990 ...

, and Gullstrand. The large crater Birkhoff is to the northwest. File:Coulomb-Sarton basin topo.jpg, Topographic map File:Coulomb-Sarton basin GRAIL gravity.jpg, Gravity map based on

External links

Lunar Orbiter 5 frame 015 h3
shows most of the basin at top of image
Lunar Orbiter 5 frame 006 med
shows all of the basin

References

{{reflist Pre-Nectarian