Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Inside Catena Mendeleev


Texture on inside wall of a crater in the Catena Mendeleev, a linear crater chain located inside the 313km Mendeleev crater (5.7°N, 140.9°E), detail from LROC Narrow Angle Camera observation M113038958R, solar illumination incidence angle 46°, image resolution 0.5 m/pixel; LRO orbit 1792, November 16, 2009. View the full-sized original LROC Featured Image, HERE [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

Sarah Braden
LROC News System

Catena Mendeleev is a linear crater chain probably formed by the impact of fragments (called 'secondaries' by planetary scientists) that were ejected by the impact that formed Tsiolkovskiy Crater, 850 kilometers to the southwest of Mendeleev. Crater chains form from secondary impacts ejected radially from their parent impact.

Today's Featured Image shows the rough and smooth textures on the inside of one of these secondary impacts. Secondary craters in a chain are often elongate in shape, with irregular rims. Secondary crater chains tend to occur in a zone immediately surrounding a large primary crater. However, larger impacts can move significant amounts of ejecta, including crater chains, far from the primary crater, as we see here at Catena Mendeleev.


LROC Wide Angle Camera 100 m/pixel monochrome mosaic, annotated with a white box marking the location of LROC NAC observation M113038958 field of view, centered at 7.67°N, 139.62°E, within Mendeleev Crater [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].


Backing away further from the field of view above allows for even more context, using the LROC WMS Image Map. The full-extent of the relatively flat interior of 313km-wide Mendeleev in comparison with the rolling highlands typical of the lunar farside comes into view [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

Browse the full NAC frame to explore the craters in Catena Mendeleev!

Related Posts:
Chain of secondary craters in Mare Orientale
Stream of Secondary Craters

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