Pallas (crater)

Pallas is a heavily-eroded lunar crater located to the north of the Sinus Medii. To the northwest is the smaller but less worn Bode crater. Pallas shares a low wall with the Murchison crater that is attached to the southeast, and there are a pair of gaps in the shared rim. The outer wall of Pallas is worn, notched, and somewhat distorted in shape. The associated crater 'Pallas A' lies across the northwest rim. The inner floor of Pallas crater has been flooded by lava, leaving a relatively flat surface. The crater possesses a central peak complex.

Lunar flare

On November 15, 1953, the physician and amateur astronomer Dr. Leon Stuart took a picture of the Moon that appeared to show a flare of light about 16 km southeast of Pallas crater. The flare was reported to last for about 8-10 seconds. The report was published in a 1956 issue of The Strolling Astronomer, a newsletter. However the idea was dismissed by professions of the period as more likely a meteoroid entering the Earth's atmosphere. Many years later Dr. Bonnie Buratti of JPL saw the photograph and decided to investigate. Assisted by a graduate student, she identified a 1.5 km. diameter crater imaged by the Clementine spacecraft. The crater has the correct size, shape, and albedo to match the expected impact energy. Some astronomers now agree that Dr. Stuart may indeed have photographed the impact of an asteroid.^[1]

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 Pallas crater.

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. 

Notes

1. ^ Buratti, B. J. & L. L. Johnson, 2003, "Identification of the lunar flash of 1953 with a fresh crater on the Moon's surface", Icarus 161, 192-197.