Geological Chronicle
Rayleigh is an impact crater measuring 113.77 kilometers in diameter along the northeast limb of the Moon. Seen edge-on from Earth, the formation offers limited detail to observers, and libration effects can completely hide it from view. The crater lies just north of Lyapunov and northwest of the large crater Joliot, with the smaller Urey attached to its southwest rim.
The crater has been heavily eroded, with a rim worn and reshaped by impacts, particularly in the south where adjacent formations and small craters have modified the edge. Its interior floor is relatively level in places but rough and irregular in the southern half, partly due to overlapping ejecta. Two small but prominent craters mark the interior surface: Rayleigh D, located just south of the midpoint, and the smaller Rayleigh B in the western half.
Rayleigh is named for British physicist John William Strutt, Lord Rayleigh, the 1904 Nobel laureate. One of its satellite features, originally designated Rayleigh A, was subsequently renamed Urey by the International Astronomical Union.