Featured Image - 11/06/2007
Multiple Generations of Craters on the Lunar Farside

Apollo 15 metric camera photograph showing Gagarin, a pre-Nectarian-age crater 265 km in diameter on the lunar far side. Gagarin crater has itself been heavily cratered, to the extent that the rim (the approximate location of which is highlighted with a dashed white line) is barely visible and the interior has been heavily eroded. Multiple crater generations can be seen in the Gagarin interior, reflecting the duration of the bombardment experienced by the lunar highlands crust. As an example, Crater A is one of the oldest and largest craters inside Gagarin; its rim has also been eroded by subsequent impacts and smaller, distinct craters can be seen on its floor. Crater B is an example of a more recent crater; it has a sharply defined rim and a relatively undisturbed ejecta blanket. For more information about this region, please refer to page 106 of Apollo Over the Moon: The View from Orbit.

 
(Apollo Image AS-15-M-0293 [NASA/JSC/Arizona State University])

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