Descartes (crater)

Descartes

Lunar Orbiter 4 image
Diameter	48 km
Depth	0.9 km
Colongitude	344° at sunrise
Eponym	René Descartes

Abulfeda and Descartes craters
NASA Image

Lunar Ferroan Anorthosite #60025 (Plagioclase Feldspar). Collected by Apollo 16 from the Lunar Highlands near Descartes. This sample is currently on display at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC.

Descartes is a heavily worn lunar crater that is located in the rugged south-central highlands of the Moon. To the southwest is the crater Abulfeda. It is named after the French philosopher, mathematician and physicist René Descartes.

The rim of Descartes survives only in stretches, and is completely missing in the north. The crater Descartes A lies across the southwest rim. The interior floor contains several curved ridges. These are concentric with the surviving outer walls to the northwest and southeast.

A section of the outer rim of Descartes is covered by a region that has a higher albedo than the surrounding surface. Measurements by the Clementine spacecraft showed that this patch is actually a magnetic anomaly—the strongest on the near side of the Moon. This magnetic field may be deflecting particles from the solar wind, and thus preventing the underlying surface from growing darker because of space weathering.

About 50 kilometers to the north of this crater was the landing site of Apollo 16. The uneven region about the landing area is sometimes called the Descartes Highlands or the Descartes Mountains.

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 Descartes.

Descartes	Latitude	Longitude	Diameter
A	12.1° S	15.2° E	16 km
C	11.0° S	16.3° E	4 km

See also

• Reiner Gamma

References

• Wood, Chuck (2007-05-31). "A New Swirl?". Lunar Photo of the Day. Retrieved 2007-05-31.

• Andersson, L. E.; Whitaker, E. A. (1982). NASA Catalogue of Lunar Nomenclature. NASA RP-1097. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Blue, Jennifer (July 25, 2007). "Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature". USGS. Retrieved 2007-08-05. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Bussey, B.; Spudis, P. (2004). The Clementine Atlas of the Moon. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-81528-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Cocks, Elijah E.; Cocks, Josiah C. (1995). Who's Who on the Moon: A Biographical Dictionary of Lunar Nomenclature. Tudor Publishers. ISBN 978-0-936389-27-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• McDowell, Jonathan (July 15, 2007). "Lunar Nomenclature". Jonathan's Space Report. Retrieved 2007-10-24. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Moore, Patrick (2001). On the Moon. Sterling Publishing Co. ISBN 978-0-304-35469-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Price, Fred W. (1988). The Moon Observer's Handbook. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-33500-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Rükl, Antonín (1990). Atlas of the Moon. Kalmbach Books. ISBN 978-0-913135-17-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Webb, Rev. T. W. (1962). Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes (6th revision ed.). Dover. ISBN 978-0-486-20917-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Whitaker, Ewen A. (1999). Mapping and Naming the Moon. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-62248-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Wlasuk, Peter T. (2000). Observing the Moon. Springer. ISBN 978-1-85233-193-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)