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Monday, February 17, 2025

Lovely Lichtenberg B Moon Crater | NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

Lovely Lichtenberg B Moon Crater | NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

Overhead view of Lichtenberg B—a beautifully preserved simple impact crater, located northwest of Aristarchus Plateau in Oceanus Procellarum on the western edge of the Moon's near side.
An oblique camera view from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter of Lichtenberg crater (31.854°N, 292.284°E). This image is approximately 22 km wide. North is to the bottom right of the image.

NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) view of Lichtenberg B crater.

This year, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) celebrates its 15th anniversary orbiting the Moon. This mission has given scientists the largest volume of data ever collected by a planetary science mission at NASA. LRO provided these images of Lichtenberg B—a beautifully preserved young impact crater. Rock outcrops in the upper portion of the crater wall are due to the successive thin lava flows that filled Oceanus Procellarum more than 3 billion years ago. The crater is approximately 5 km in diameter, north is up, Sun is from the south-southwest.
 
The rim of this crater is circular and sharp-edged, with negligible wear. On the inner sides the loose material has slid to the base, forming a ring of scree (small loose stones) about the interior floor. The crater rim and interior floor exhibit a relatively high albedo (light reflections). This usually indicates a younger crater that has not been darkened by space weathering.

The lack of atmosphere on the Moon can have its benefits. For example, without an atmosphere, there are few processes to degrade landforms. On Earth, rain and wind are major causes of erosion, but on the Moon, those causes are absent. Erosion on the Moon is due to impacts that cause shaking and can demolish other craters during formation and to gravity pulling material downslope. In the case of Lichtenberg B, gravity has not yet rendered the crater smooth and subdued, and there are few impacts nearby, much less any that could have affected the morphology of the crater, as Lichtenberg B appears younger than its neighbors. On the downside, the lack of atmosphere means that space weathering is more efficient on the Moon, and fresh, highly reflective crater ejecta darkens over time. However, since Lichtenberg B's ejecta deposit is still bright, it is quite young.

Crisp morphology and a highly reflective ejecta deposit make Lichtenberg B stand out from many nearby impact craters. This exquisitely preserved crater is located to the northwest of Aristarchus Plateau in Oceanus Procellarum, a vast mare unit littered with impact craters and wrinkle ridges. The ejecta deposit is particularly interesting because it displays a wrinkled texture with structures that resemble dunes. How do these structures form? What makes Lichtenberg B's ejecta deposit different from other craters that lack these dune-like structures? It turns out that Lichtenberg B is not alone. Scientists have observed these same features at Linné Crater and are in the process of determining how they formed.


Learn more about NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/lro/


Image Credits: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
Release Dates: Sept. 24, 2013-Sept. 2. 2014


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