Ghost craters

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Ghost craters (in low-albedo Mare regions)


Description

Ghost craters are almost invisible remains of common craters, they are only detectable when sunlight is shining very low above the local horizon (morning or evening terminator). Some ghost craters show a curious radio dish like appearance with perfectly circle shaped and sharp looking rim. Sometimes this rim looks sort of double. For this kind of rare dish like (or shallow bowl shaped) ghost craters see the page Shallow bowl shaped craters.

(re-arrangements of this page started on Saturday the 25th of November 2017)

Mare Anguis


Mare Australe (southern farside region)

  • The chance of detecting ghost-craters in this region is small (Mare Australe is composed of common craters with small Mare regions in them).


Mare Cognitum


Mare Crisium

  • Ghost crater composed of wrinkle ridges, near Dorsum Termier, slightly north of Mare Crisium's southern rim, see: http://bit.ly/2A59SSH


Mare Fecunditatis

  • Mare Fecunditatis is a well-known region of ghost-craters, see Rukl: 48.
  • Possible ghost crater near Secchi X (aka NASA's Lost Crater), see LPOD Little Treats.


Mare Frigoris


Mare Humboldtianum (on the northeastern limb)


Mare Humorum


Mare Imbrium


Mare Ingenii (farside region)


Mare Insularum


Mare Marginis (on the eastern limb)


Mare Moscoviense (farside region)


Mare Nectaris


Mare Nubium


Mare Orientale (on the western limb)


Mare Serenitatis

  • Abetti, immediately west of Mons Argaeus.
  • Finsch, south of the pronounced bowl-shaped crater Sarabhai (Bessel A).


Mare Smythii (on the eastern limb)


Mare Spumans


Mare Tranquillitatis

  • Lamont, which is an oval-shaped system of wrinkle ridges.
  • Ghost within a ghost – an unusual ~3.5 km-sized ghost-rimmed crater appearing within the already-recognised ghost crater of Lamont. Note, the arrows show Irregular Mare Patches (IMPs) - associated to that of IMP #55. - JohnMoore2 (see high-resolution photograph below in section IMAGES).
  • There's a very difficult to detect ghost-crater immediately north-northwest of the bowl-shaped crater Arago B. This ghost-crater is a little bit larger than Arago B itself. There's also a small shallow rimless crater just north-northeast of Arago B.
  • Jansen R.
  • Jansen R's small companion (a nickname from D.Caes for the officially unnamed ghost-crater southeast of the much larger ghost-crater Jansen R), see http://bit.ly/2wtwbzB
  • Plinius B (together with Jansen R's small companion these are members of some sort of subdivision of the category Ghost Craters).
  • Near Dorsa Barlow, see AS8-13-2347.


Mare Undarum


Mare Vaporum


Oceanus Procellarum

  • Unnamed ghost crater at 32°15' North/ 43° West (west-southwest of Gruithuisen and north-northwest of Angstrom, see LPOD Volcanic Hinterland).
  • Small ghost crater almost touching Angstrom (called "Cheerio crater" by Charles Wood).
  • Unnamed ghost crater immediately northwest of Lichtenberg (touching the northwestern part of Lichtenberg's rim).
  • Small ghost crater between Lichtenberg A and Lichtenberg AA (both bowl-shaped craters are located east-southeast of Lichtenberg itself). This small ghost crater was formerly known as Golgi's ghost because it is located northwest of Golgi (Schiaparelli D). Note: the name Lichtenberg AA is not mentioned on the LROC's Act-React Quick Map (to see this name, take a look at the chart at top of page 6 in the Times Atlas of the Moon).
  • Small unnamed ghost crater immediately south-southeast of Euclides F, visible on the Hi-Res scan of Lunar Orbiter 4's photograph LOIV-137-h3 (near the frame's right margin), see also http://bit.ly/2D4rJva
  • Avani's Ghost (or: Avani Soares's Ghost): a possible shallow depression near Wollaston D.
  • Unnamed ghost crater at 54° West / 38° North, southeast of Rumker. To see this ghost crater, take a look at the LROC's WAC MOSAIC which shows big shadows. See: http://bit.ly/2zl3uHw
  • Very difficult to detect ghost crater east of Dechen B, see: http://bit.ly/2A3Phyb
  • Ghost crater north-northeast of Nielsen, with system of two small shallow bowl-shaped craters immediately west-northwest of it.
  • There's some sort of "wrinkle ridge ghost crater" in the officially unnamed wrinkle ridge southeast of Seleucus. The pinpoint coordinates of this rare sort of ghost crater are: 17° North / 63°30' West. See LROC close-up: http://bit.ly/2zl6Ie1 (east of Krafft U).
  • Very difficult to detect ghost crater east of Galilaei D: http://bit.ly/2ETUqJv


Sinus Aestuum


Sinus Amoris


Sinus Asperitatis


Sinus Concordiae


Sinus Fidei


Sinus Honoris


Sinus Iridum


Sinus Lunicus


Sinus Medii


Sinus Roris


Sinus Successus



Images

  • Ghost within a ghost – an unusual ~3.5 km-sized ghost-rimmed crater appearing within the already-recognised ghost crater of Lamont in Mare Tranquillitatis. Note, the arrows show Irregular Mare Patches (IMPs) - associated to that of IMP #55. - JohnMoore2

BuriedWithinLamont.jpg

LPOD Articles

Little Treats

LROC Articles

Ghost Crater in Southern Mare Crisium
The Ghosts of Mare Fecunditatis
Ghost crater in Mare Imbrium

Wikipedia

Related to ghost craters, see Palimpsest.