Heraclitus

Lat: 49.2°S, Long: 6.2°E, Diam: 90 km, Depth: 4.26 km, Rükl: 73

Westfall, 2000: 4.26 km
Viscardy, 1985: 3.8 km
Cherrington, 1969: 2.89 km
According to measurements made using the ILIADS’s software, the highest part of the crater’s rim on the east (and northwest) reaches, on average, some 1.4 km approx., above the mean radius of the Moon (~ 1738 km). Measurements of the crater’s floor, on average, reaches some 1.9 km approx., below the mean radius. Together, this would imply the depth of the crater, on average, is at around the 3.3 km mark (1.4 km + 1.9 km = 3.3 km) - from these respective points. Sub-crater, Heraclitus D (which has impacted Heraclitus’s southwest sector), is some 2.9 km approx., below the mean radius, increasing its depth, from the highest part of the rim to about 4.3 km (1.4 + 2.9 km = 4.3 km). - JohnMoore2 JohnMoore2

Ridge or Peak
ILIADS (above-mentioned) measures the ridge?/peak? (the feature that divides the crater’s floor in a NE-SW direction), on average, at some 0.6 km below the mean radius of the Moon (~ 1738 km). Given that the depth is some 3.3 km (in relation to the Illiads’s measurements – see Depth data above), the height of the ‘ridge?/peak? is around the 1.3 km mark [(3.3 km) – (1.4 km + 0.6 km = 2.0 km) = 1.3 km)]. - JohnMoore2 JohnMoore2

Nomenclature

Named for Heraclitus of Ephesus (ca. 535–475 BCE), known as "The Obscure", a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. Heraclitus was the first person in the Western world to create a robust philosophical system. His writings influenced the thought of Socrates, Plato, and modern process philosophy.
This feature is Catalog number 3416 in Mary Blagg's Collated List. A note (page 175) indicates the name was given by Schmidt to what in Beer and Mädler and Neison, 1876 was a compound feature called Licetus. Schmidt restricted that name to their Licetus a, assigning the present name to their Licetus c.
Schmidt's name was adopted in Named Lunar Formations (1935) where five satellite features (A-E share the primary name.
Kuiper reports in Table III of his Photographic Lunar Atlas (approved by the IAU) that he has modified the IAU boundary of this feature: Now includes I.A.U. Heraclitus B.
- The original Heraclitus was the western part of the presently-named feature. Heraclitus B (a name no longer used) was the overlapping and similarly-sized eastern part, presumably separated by the spine down the center.
A Heraclitus K was added in the System of Lunar Craters.

A Portfolio of Lunar Drawings (Harold Hill), pages 184, 185.

This page has been edited 1 times. The last modification was made by - tychocrater tychocrater on Jun 13, 2009 3:24 pm - afx3u2