| Crater characteristics | |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 48.6° S, 177.4° W |
| Diameter | 77 km |
| Depth | Unknown |
| Colongitude | 180° at sunrise |
| Eponym | Kurt Alder |
Alder is a lunar impact crater that is located in the southern hemisphere on the far side of the Moon. It is located in the South Pole-Aitken basin, and lies to the southeast of the Von Kármán crater. Southeast of Alder is the Bose crater, and to the south-southwest lies the Boyle crater. The inner wall of Alder is rough and slightly terraced, with the material scattered across the edges of the otherwise relatively flat interior floor. There are several low central ridges lying along a band from the mid-point toward the eastern rim. A small crater lies on the eastern inner slopes. The crater is otherwise free of significant impacts within the rim. Alder crater is associated with the only area in the basin not dominated by the pyroxene rocks typical of lunar lowlands. This alder ejecta area is on spectrographic evidence instead principally anorthosite rock, typical of the lunar highlands.
Satellite craters
By convention these features are identified on lunar maps by placing the letter on the side of the crater mid-point that is closest to Alder crater.
| Alder | Latitude | Longitude | Diameter |
|---|---|---|---|
| E | 47.6° S | 172.3° W | 16 km |
References
- Andersson, L. E.; Whitaker, E. A., (1982). NASA Catalogue of Lunar Nomenclature. NASA RP-1097.
- Blue, Jennifer (July 25, 2007). Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS. Retrieved on 2007-08-05.
- Bussey, B.; Spudis, P., (2004). The Clementine Atlas of the Moon. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-81528-2.
- Cocks, Elijah E.; Cocks, Josiah C. (1995). Who's Who on the Moon: A Biographical Dictionary of Lunar Nomenclature. Tudor Publishers. ISBN 0-936389-27-3.
- McDowell, Jonathan (July 15, 2007). Lunar Nomenclature. Jonathan's Space Report. Retrieved on 2007-10-24.
- 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: 136.
- Moore, Patrick (2001). On the Moon. Sterling Publishing Co.. ISBN 0-304-35469-4.
- Price, Fred W. (1988). The Moon observer's handbook. Cambridge University Press.
- Rükl, Antonín (1990). Atlas of the Moon. Kalmbach Books. ISBN 0-913135-17-8.
- Webb, Rev. T. W. (1962). Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes, 6th revision, Dover. ISBN 0-486-20917-2.
- Whitaker, Ewen A. (1999). Mapping and Naming the Moon. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-62248-4.
- Wlasuk, Peter T. (2000). Observing the Moon. Springer. ISBN 1852331933.
External links
- Taylor, G. J. (July, 1998). The Biggest Hole in the Solar System. Planetary Science Research Discoveries. Retrieved on 2007-07-25. (This article on South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin mentions Alder crater.)
