Chesterton
MESSENGER image with Chesterton at left
PlanetMercury
Coordinates88°31′N 126°54′W / 88.51°N 126.9°W / 88.51; -126.9
QuadrangleBorealis
Diameter37.23 km
EponymGilbert Keith Chesterton

Chesterton is a crater on Mercury, near the north pole. Its name was adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 2012, after the English author G. K. Chesterton.[1]

The floor of the crater is in permanent shadow. S band radar data from the Arecibo Observatory collected between 1999 and 2005 indicates a radar-bright area covering the entire floor of Chesterton, which is probably indicative of a water ice deposit.[2][3][4]

Radar-bright deposits near the north pole. Chesterton is above left of center.

Chesterton is adjacent to Tryggvadóttir crater.

References

  1. "Chesterton". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. NASA. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
  2. Chabot, N. L., D. J. Lawrence, G. A. Neumann, W. C. Feldman, and D. A. Paige, 2018. Mercury's Polar Deposits. In Mercury: The View After MESSENGER edited by Sean C. Solomon, Larry R. Nittler, and Brian J. Anderson. Cambridge Planetary Science. Chapter 13, Figure 13.2.
  3. PIA19411: Water Ice on Mercury, NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
  4. John K. Harmon, Martin A. Slade, Melissa S. Rice, 2011. Radar imagery of Mercury’s putative polar ice: 1999–2005 Arecibo results. Icarus, 211, p37-50. doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2010.08.007


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.