Geological Chronicle
Positioned along the northwestern limb of the Moon, Röntgen is an impact crater measuring 128.42 kilometers across. Both Nernst and Röntgen overlie the eastern rim of the Lorentz walled plain, with Nernst partly overlying Röntgen's northwestern outer rim. The smaller crater Aston is separated from the eastern edge of Röntgen by only a few kilometers of terrain, and Voskresenskiy lies to the south-southeast.
The outer rim of Röntgen has been heavily eroded by subsequent impacts, forming an uneven ring of ridges. A relatively fresh, cup-shaped crater lies along the common rim between Röntgen and Nernst, where the infrared spectrum of pure crystalline plagioclase has been identified. The interior floor is nearly level, with a few patches of uneven terrain near the edges, a low ridge near the midpoint, and several small and tiny craterlets.
The crater is named after Wilhelm C. Röntgen, the German physicist and 1901 Nobel laureate. Prior to its designation being formally adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1964, Röntgen was called Crater 184, while an unnamed crater to the south was called Crater 185.