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Pitatus & Hesiodus_07062014_150531-UT

(Freely adapted from Wikipedia)

 

Pitatus is an ancient lunar impact crater (diam. 97 Km, depth 0.9 Km) located at the southern edge of Mare Nubium. Joined to the northwest rim is the crater Hesiodus, and the two are joined by a narrow cleft. The complex wall of Pitatus is heavily worn, and has been encroached by lava flows. The rim is lowest to the north, where the lava almost joins the Mare Nubium. Near the middle is a low central peak that is offset to the northwest of center. This peak only rises to a height of 0.5 km.

Pitatus is a floor-fractured crater, meaning it was flooded from the interior by magma intrusion through cracks and openings. The flooded crater floor contains low hills in the east and a system of slender clefts named the Rimae Pitatus. The larger and more spectacular of these rilles follow the edges of the inner walls, especially in the northern and eastern halves. The floor also contains the faint traces of deposited ray markings.

Just to the north of Pitatus in the neighboring mare is the half-buried rim of a lesser crater, covered in the past when Mare Nubium was formed.

Hesiodus is a lunar impact crater (dia. 43 Km, dep. 1.4 Km) located on the southern fringes of Mare Nubium, to the northwest of the crater Pitatus. Starting near the northwest rim of Hesiodus is the wide cleft named Rima Hesiodus. This rille runs 300 km east-southeastward to the Palus Epidemiarum.

The low rim of Hesiodus is heavily worn, with the southwest rim being slightly intruded upon by Hesodius A. The later is an unusual circular crater with a concentric inner wall. To the southeast, a cleft in the wall of Hesiodus joins the crater to Pitatus.

Inside Hesiodus, the floor is flooded and relatively flat. It lacks a central peak, and, instead, a small impact crater Hesiodus D lies at the middle.




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