Pierazzo Crater on The Moon's Far Side | NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
The Artemis II crew spotted Pierazzo Crater on day five of their round-trip around the Moon. It is located within the north-northwestern section of the immense skirt of ejecta that surrounds the Mare Orientale impact basin. To the south is the Montes Cordillera mountain ring. To the west is the crater Lents. This crater produced a broad, wispy ray system that extends for more than 100 kilometers (km) in all directions. The ejecta blanket contains multiple lobate impact melt flows that extend to over 40 km from the center of the 9.3 km diameter crater and that appear dark in contrast to the surrounding material.
The pristine state of this crater looks as if it could have formed yesterday, however erosion happens slowly on the Moon. This oblique image was acquired late in 2017, and required the spacecraft to roll 65° towards the limb; due to the curvature of the Moon, the viewing angle of the crater is actually 74°. The geometry here is similar to viewing the distant landscape out of an airplane window, except that the Moon does not have an atmosphere that results in the hazy distant views seen on Earth. This image shows a reduced-scale view of the bright crater cavity and of the ejecta. There is dark material on the crater ejecta and interior with linear and flow-like patterns. The dark material consists of lunar rocks that were melted by the very high-speed impact event, flowed in places, and then froze into dark glassy deposits.
The farside rayed Pierazzo Crater was named by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 2015 after Italian planetary scientist, Elisabetta “Betty” Pierazzo (1963-2011). Betty studied impact cratering, including the production of impact melt, so this 9.3-km diameter crater with abundant impact melt was well chosen to honor her.
The Planetary Science Institute (PSI) in the United States established the Betty Pierazzo Memorial Fund to support the Pierazzo International Student Travel Award that is given annually to an American graduate student to attend a planetary meting outside the U.S. and to a non-U.S. graduate student to attend a planetary meeting with the U.S. in order to promote international collaborations.
This image was captured by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft (2009-2026).
LRO has made a 3-D map of the Moon's surface at 100-meter resolution and 98.2% coverage (excluding polar areas in deep shadow), including 0.5-meter resolution images of Apollo landing sites.
LRO has been studying the Moon from up close since 2009, making it the longest-lived lunar orbiting mission ever. The orbiter has mapped the Moon’s surface and measured its temperature, composition, and radiation environment in unprecedented detail. Data from LRO enables NASA, and our international and commercial partners, to select locations on the lunar surface where spacecraft and astronauts can safely land. The orbiter is also helping NASA identify areas near the Moon’s South Pole with crucial resources like water and extended sunlight that provides power for equipment and supports exploration activities.
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/lro/
Release Date: Feb. 13, 2018
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