Geological Chronicle
Situated on the southern far side of the Moon within the Lucretius quadrangle, Nam Byeong-Cheol spans an approximate diameter of 132 kilometers. It constitutes the largest lunar crater to receive an official name since 1980.
Measurements by lunar orbiters, including the Korean lunar orbiter Danuri, identified a concentrated magnetic anomaly within the crater, where local magnetic field strength is markedly higher than that of the surrounding terrain.
The International Astronomical Union officially approved the name Nam Byeong-Cheol on August 14, 2024, following a proposal by the magnetometer research team of the Danuri mission at Kyung Hee University. The crater honors Nam Byeong-cheol (1817–1863), a prominent mathematician, astronomer, and government minister of the late Joseon Dynasty who improved the design of the armillary sphere and authored foundational treatises on observational astronomy and spherical trigonometry.