Bruce (crater)

Bruce
Lunar Orbiter 4 image
(White blemish is present on original image)
Coordinates1°06′N 0°24′E / 1.1°N 0.4°E / 1.1; 0.4
Diameter6.14 km (3.82 mi)[1]
Depth1.25 km (0.78 mi)[2]
Colongitude0° at sunrise
EponymCatherine W. Bruce
View facing west from Lunar Orbiter 3
Oblique view facing west with Bruce at center and Blagg below center, from Apollo 10

Bruce is a small lunar impact crater located in the small lunar mare Sinus Medii.[3] It lies to the west-northwest of the irregular crater Rhaeticus, and is about 33 km to the west of the even smaller Blagg.

This feature is circular and cup-shaped, with no notable impacts overlaying the rim or interior. The interior has a generally higher albedo than the surrounding terrain, but there is a band of darker material cross the midpoint of the crater from west to east. It is surrounded by lunar mare, with a few tiny craterlets in the surface to the east.[4]

Less than forty kilometres to the southeast is the original point of the selenographic coordinate system. From the floor of this crater the Earth always appears at the zenith. Both the Surveyor 4 and Surveyor 6 probes landed about 50 km to the southwest of Bruce.

This crater is named for Catherine Wolfe Bruce (1816-1900), an American philanthropist and patroness of astronomy. Her name was added to lunar nomenclature by Johann N. Krieger and Rudolf König during 1898–1912.[5] Its designation was formally adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1935.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 "Bruce". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology Research Program.
  2. ↑ Joshi, Maitri P. (February 2017). "Physical properties of lunar craters". Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics. 17 (3). id. 24. Bibcode:2017RAA....17...24J. doi:10.1088/1674-4527/17/3/24.
  3. ↑ Moore, Patrick (2001). On the Moon. Sterling Publishing Co. p. 205. ISBN 978-0-304-35469-6.
  4. ↑ Bussey, B.; Spudis, P. (2004). The Clementine Atlas of the Moon. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 59. ISBN 978-0-521-81528-4.
  5. ↑ Whitaker, Ewen A. (1999). Mapping and Naming the Moon. Cambridge University Press. p. 227. ISBN 978-0-521-62248-6.

Sources

  • Price, Fred W. (1988). The Moon Observer's Handbook. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-33500-3.
  • Rükl, Antonín (1990). Atlas of the Moon. Kalmbach Books. ISBN 978-0-913135-17-4.
  • Wlasuk, Peter T. (2000). Observing the Moon. Springer. ISBN 978-1-85233-193-1.
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