Fechner (crater)

Fechner
Clementine mosaic with Fechner at center. Fechner T is the small bright crater at left.
Coordinates59°00′S 124°54′E / 59.0°S 124.9°E / -59.0; 124.9
Diameter59.32 km (36.86 mi)
DepthUnknown
Colongitude237° at sunrise
EponymGustav T. Fechner
Vallis Planck was disrupted by the Fechner crater impact
Apollo 8 photographed Fechner from a distance. Fechner T is the bright crater above center.

Fechner is a lunar impact crater that lies on the far side of the Moon's southern hemisphere, attached to the western rim of a large walled plain named Planck. The eastern rim of Fechner intersects the Vallis Planck, a long, wide cleft in the surface that follows a course to the north-northwest. This valley intrudes into the southeastern rim of the crater, then continues northwards from the periphery of the northeast rim.

Attached to the western rim of Fechner is Fechner T, a small, bowl-shaped crater with a relatively high albedo ray system. This satellite crater is surrounded by a blanket of light-hued ejecta that spills across the southwestern half of Fechner's interior floor. The crater rim of Fechner is relatively worn and eroded, with the eastern half of the rim reshaped due to the valley and proximity to Planck. The interior floor is marked by several small craters.: 130 

The crater is named after Gustav Theodor Fechner, a German physicist, psychologist, and philosopher (1801-1887). The name was formally adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1970.

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 Fechner.

Fechner: 298  Latitude Longitude Diameter
T 59.1° S 122.9° E 14 km

The fresh crater Fechner T is less than 150 million years old and so dates to the Copernican period of the lunar geologic timescale.

References

  1. 1 2 "Fechner". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology Research Program. Retrieved 2026-10-17.
  2. ↑ Moore, Patrick (2000). The Data Book of Astronomy. CRC Press. p. 67. ISBN 978-1-4200-3344-1.
  3. ↑ Byrne, Charles J. (2008). The Far Side of the Moon. Springer. p. 68. ISBN 978-1-4899-8806-5.
  4. ↑ "LAC 130" (PDF). Gazeteer of Planetary Nomenclature. Retrieved 2026-10-17.
  5. 1 2 Bussey, B.; Spudis, P. (2004). The Clementine Atlas of the Moon. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-81528-4.
  6. ↑ Menzel, D. H.; et al. (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. S2CID 122125855. See p. 150.
  7. ↑ Grego, P. (2015). "Satellite Crater". In Hargitai, H.; Kereszturi, Á. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. New York, NY: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-3134-3_328.
  8. ↑ Sfair, Rafael; et al. (September 2025). "The Moon as a possible source for Earth's co-orbital bodies". The Open Journal of Astrophysics. 8. id. 136. arXiv:2505.09066. Bibcode:2025OJAp....8E.136S. doi:10.33232/001c.144365.

Sources