Shioli Crater, what is it?
Shioli Crater is a tiny impact crater on the near side of the moon that is situated inside the much larger Cyrillus crater. It has a noticeable ray system and is a young crater.
Shioli crater has a diameter of 270 m with an unknown radius.
The crater was named after a Japanese female name “Shioli”. The Japanese SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) lander’s landing spot was a point northwest of the crater.
Picture of the SLIM lander
The crater is located around 322 kilometers, or 200 miles, south of the Sea of Tranquility. It’s the same region not far from the lunar equator where man was first landed on the moon by Apollo 11.
Picture of Apollo 11
Sea of Nectar
The greatest lunar feature near Shioli is the Sea of Nectar, one of the oldest basins on the near side of the moon—the hemisphere that is always facing Earth—with a diameter of 210 miles (339 kilometers).
Sea of Nectar (Mare Nectaris)
Sea of Tranquility
Located in the moon’s Tranquillitatis basin, the Sea of Tranquility, also known as Mare Tranquillitatis, is a lunar mare. It’s the first location on Earth that humans have ever visited. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made their imprints there on July 20, 1969.
The sea of Tranquility (Courtesy NASA)
Despite being comparably smooth and level, the Sea of Tranquility is larger than the Sea of Nectar, measuring approximately 540 miles (875 kilometers) across.
Theophilus Crater
Shioli Crater was created on ejecta deposited by the impact that created Theophilus Crater, 12 kilometers from the crater’s edge (which has a diameter of 100 kilometers). That means that the material surrounding Shioli Crater came from a depth of one to two kilometers.
Apollo 16 metric mapping camera oblique view of the 110 km diameter crater Theophilus (Courtesy NASA).
Also read, Japan’s SLIM Probe Successfully Lands on Moon but Faces Solar Power Challenge
