Cayley (crater)

Cayley

Lunar Orbiter 4 image
Diameter	14 km
Depth	3.1 km
Colongitude	345° at sunrise
Eponym	Arthur Cayley

Oblique view from Apollo 15, showing Cayley (center), Ariadaeus (bright, left foreground), D'Arrest (left background), and Whewell (right)

Cayley is a small lunar impact crater that is located in a lava-flooded region to the west of Mare Tranquillitatis. It lies to the northwest of the smaller crater De Morgan and the larger D'Arrest. West and slightly north of Cayley is Whewell, a crater of about the same dimensions. To the north is a linear rille designated Rima Ariadaeus, which follows a course to the east-southeast.

This is a circular, bowl-shaped formation with a small interior floor at the midpoint. (Small being relative to the overall diameter, as it occupies about one-fourth the total cross-section.) The sloping interior walls are relatively light in hue, having a higher albedo as the surrounding terrain. However it is not nearly as bright as the slightly larger crater Dionysius to the east-southeast, and lacks a ray system.

The smooth, rolling plains to the east of this crater are called the Cayley Formation. It is somewhat similar to the lunar maria, but has a slightly higher albedo and is overlapped at the eastern edge by the Mare Tranquillitatis. Lunar scientists suspect that this plain may have resulted from deposits of ejecta from the formation of large impact basins such as Mare Imbrium or Mare Orientale. (The most likely source is the Mare Imbrium impact basin to the northwest.)

References

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• Masursky, H.; Colton, G. W.; Farouk, E.-B. (1978). "Apollo Over the Moon: A View from Orbit (NASA SP-362)". NASA. Retrieved 2006-08-10. — see Fig. 46
• Wood, Charles A. (March 2006). "Looking Between Craters". Sky & Telescope.
• Wood, Chuck (2007-08-15). "A Formation of Surprise". Lunar Photo of the Day. Retrieved 2007-07-15.

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• Menzel, D. H.; Minnaert, M.; Levin, B.; Dollfus, A.; Bell, B. (1971). "Report on Lunar Nomenclature by the Working Group of Commission 17 of the IAU". Space Science Reviews. 12 (2): 136–186. Bibcode:1971SSRv...12..136M. doi:10.1007/BF00171763. {{cite journal}}: 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)
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• 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)