Proclus
Location: ·
One of the Moon's brightest craters — an oblique impact fanned its rays out to one side only.
The ray system of Proclus is missing a wedge. Rays spread over 600 km to the north and west, but a sector of roughly 50 degrees to the southwest carries none, and that sector is Palus Somni - a region defined entirely by the absence of another crater's ejecta.
The pattern is diagnostic of an oblique impact, at 10 to 15 degrees from horizontal, with the projectile arriving from the west-southwest. Ejecta from such an impact is thrown forward and to the sides but not backward, leaving a zone of avoidance uprange. The rim reflects the same asymmetry: about 1 km high downrange against 250 m uprange.
Sunrise
Sunset
Sunrise and sunset on Proclus
| Event | Time | Lit |
|---|---|---|
| Computing… | ||
- Sunrise / Sunset: at the feature's centre (IAU Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature).
- Lit: the illuminated fraction of the Moon's disc at that moment.
Named after
Proclus Diadochus, Greek philosopher and mathematician (412–485).
Further info
Official record from the IAU Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature: Proclus
Wikipedia: Proclus (crater)