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# Glorious Aristarchus
- URL: https://jatan.space/glorious-aristarchus/
- Published: 2019-03-11T20:28:50.000Z
- Updated: 2024-02-21T09:16:02.000Z
- Description: The size of a large city, and one of the brightest features on the Moon, Aristarchus crater is easily visible to the naked eye.
- Author: Jatan Mehta

Seen here is the young, bright Aristarchus crater on the Moon about the size of a large city.

![](https://jatan.space/content/images/2024/02/https-3a-2f-2fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984-s3-amazonaws-com-2fpublic-2fimages-2fee718dd2-4647-4a2f-915a-ae3dbb9c462a_757x568-png.jpg)

The 40 kilometers diameter Aristarchus crater, as seen by [Credit: NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)](https://quickmap.lroc.asu.edu/?extent=-49.9246019,22.2733375,-44.7140959,25.0599689&proj=16&layers=NrBsFYBoAZIRnpEoAsjZwLrc0A)

Being big and one of the brightest features on the Moon, Aristarchus crater is easily visible to the naked eye. It's located near the [largest valley on the Moon](https://jatan.space/the-moon-grand-canyon/) and akin to [Tycho's central mountain](https://jatan.space/tycho-crater-mountain/), it has one peaking out too (pun intended).

![](https://jatan.space/content/images/2024/02/https-3a-2f-2fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984-s3-amazonaws-com-2fpublic-2fimages-2fd18d63bb-d0cb-4e99-94e5-322114ed8ef6_2500x1600-jpeg-2.jpg)

A spectacular closeup view of the Aristarchus crater and its central mountain. [Credit: NASA LRO](http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/1022)

The fact that the crater is so bright and has rocky, non-smooth walls, indicate its young age. The age is estimated to be about 450 million years. The material ejecting out of the crater, called ejecta, extend in the south-west direction, indicating that the object that formed the crater must have impacted from the north-east. The impact carved into the lunar surface, exposing the lunar interior crustal material.

Aristarchus crater was one of the candidate landing sites for now-cancelled Apollo 17+ missions. Visiting Aristarchus crater in a future lunar landing mission will allow study of the lunar interior as well as mechanics of impact crater formation.

[KNOW MORE](http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/1022)

[![Aristarchus crater on the Moon.](https://jatan.space/content/images/2024/02/https-3a-2f-2fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984-s3-amazonaws-com-2fpublic-2fimages-2f1483fef0-e530-4b4d-aa9c-67c45b7e133d_1023x768-png.jpg)](https://quickmap.lroc.asu.edu/?extent=-49.9246019,22.2733375,-44.7140959,25.0599689&proj=16&layers=NrBsFYBoAZIRnpEoAsjZwLrc0A)

[EXPLORE ON A MAP](https://quickmap.lroc.asu.edu/?extent=-49.9246019,22.2733375,-44.7140959,25.0599689&proj=16&layers=NrBsFYBoAZIRnpEoAsjZwLrc0A)