Geological Chronicle
Aitken is a large lunar impact crater situated on the far side of the Moon, resting along the northern rim of the immense South Pole-Aitken basin, an enormous formation named for this crater and the southern lunar pole as its two extreme points. The crater dates to the Late Imbrian epoch of the lunar geologic timescale. It is notably deep because the original impactor struck the broken and porous ejecta of the older basin, producing terraced inner walls that vary in width, narrowing most noticeably in the southwest.
The interior floor of Aitken has been resurfaced by darker lava flows, particularly across its southern half. Just east of the crater midpoint rises an arcing central ridge line, complemented by smaller ridges in the western half and several small crater impacts across the eastern floor. Detections in the central peaks reveal anorthosite with very low mafic abundance. Beyond the rim, striations caused by ejecta from Aitken's formation remain visible on the satellite craters Aitken Y and Daedalus R.
Previously designated Crater 307, the feature was formally named by the International Astronomical Union in 1970 to honor American astronomer Robert Grant Aitken, a specialist in binary stellar systems. During the Apollo 17 mission, the command module passed directly over Aitken in orbit. Equipped with a photograph of Aitken from Zond 8, the crew had instructions to examine the interior with emphasis on albedo, textures, and structures of the dark floor fill, light swirls in the southwest quadrant, rock exposures on the central peak, and possible lava marks.