Featured Image - 11/20/2007
Mare Filled Tsiolkovskiy Crater

A section of Tsiolkovskiy Crater, a 185km wide impact crater named after the Russian physicist and space pioneer Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky (1857 - 1935). Located on the lunar far-side (20.4° S / 129.1° E), the interior of Tsiolkovskiy crater is filled with Upper Imbrium aged mare basalt (contact shown as white dashed line). The mare basalt surface is pock-marked with small, younger impact craters. Tsiolkovskiy crater can be characterized morphologically as a polygonal crater, with evidence of mass movement of material along zones of weakness creating a terraced crater edge (A) and showing evidence of impact melt flung outwards and atop of adjacent material (B). Not visible is the central peak of Tsiolkovskiy crater, which is south of the image edge. Tsiolkovskiy crater was first imaged in 1959 by the Soviet Luna 3 mission.

 
(Apollo Image AS-15-M-0308 [NASA/JSC/Arizona State University])

Close-in view (approximately 88 km wide and 42 km high) of the mare basalt inside Tsiolkovskiy crater, showing young impact craters. Note the darker albedo of the mare basalt relative to the crater edge, and the negative and positive relief features on the mare surface.

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