The Crater Erlanger

Feature Profile & Selenographic Data

Feature type

crater

Coordinates

86.99° N · 28.62° E

Diameter

10.94 km

IAU approval

2009/01/22 00:00:00

LAC quadrangle

LAC-1 · Peary

Geological Chronicle

Erlanger is a very deep lunar impact crater that lies near the north pole of the Moon. The formation spans an official diameter of 10.94 kilometers.

Due to its position near the lunar north pole (and given that the Moon's axis is only tilted about 1.5°), sunlight only rarely falls on the bottom, and the 2008 Chandrayaan-1 probe hoped to find that ice from comet impacts had accumulated there. It is recorded in the IAU Gazetteer under quadrangle LAC-1.

Chronology & Exploration

1. IAU Name Adopted

   The International Astronomical Union officially approves the crater name.

Scientific Sources & References

• IAU Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature — Joseph; American physiologist, Nobel Prize winner 1944 (1874-1965).
• Wikipedia (en) — Erlanger (crater)

Name Origin

Joseph; American physiologist, Nobel Prize winner 1944 (1874-1965).