Fersman (lunar crater)

Fersman is a large, ancient impact crater on the far side of the Moon, in the northern hemisphere, named for the Soviet geochemist and mineralogist Aleksandr Yevgenyevich Fersman (1883–1945) and approved by the International Astronomical Union in 1970.^{1 • 2}

Location and surroundings

Fersman lies on the far side of the Moon, the hemisphere that always faces away from Earth, at a center latitude of 17.90°N and longitude of 126.06°W in the planetographic +East coordinate system used by the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature.¹ The crater spans latitudes from 15.46° to 20.35°N and longitudes from 123.50° to 128.63°W, and it falls within the LAC-53 1:1 million-scale lunar chart.¹

Several named craters surround it. Poynting lies to the west and Miller to the west-southwest; McNally sits to the north and Comstock to the northeast; the heavily degraded Weyl lies to the east.

Age and character

The crater's formation is assigned to the Nectarian period, one of the earliest divisions of lunar geologic time, which the Russian-language description places in the interval about 39.2 to 38.5 billion... that is, 3.92 to 3.85 billion years ago.² Both descriptions call it a large, ancient impact structure, and its great age means its original form has been worn down by subsequent impacts over nearly four billion years.²

At 148.14 km across, Fersman is large enough that its interior and rim record the complex morphology typical of big lunar impact structures, in which central peaks and terraced walls appear at diameters well above the bowl-shaped form of small craters.^{1 • 3}

Naming

The name honors Aleksandr Yevgenyevich Fersman, a Soviet geochemist and mineralogist who lived from 1883 to 1945, and the IAU adopted it in 1970.¹ The gazetteer's cited reference for the namesake is Webster's Biographical Dictionary (G. and C. Merriam Company, Springfield, Mass., 1974 and other editions).¹

Observation

Because Fersman is on the far side, it cannot be seen from Earth. Modern views come from orbiting spacecraft: the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which carries the LROC camera package among its seven scientific instruments, has imaged the region around the crater.⁴

References

1. Fersman, Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, USGS Astrogeology Science Center / IAU
2. Ферсман (кратер), Энциклопедия
3. Comparison of crater types on Moon, Mars, and Earth, NASA NTRS
4. LRO, NASA Astrobiology

Initially written Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Oct 25, 2026; Nov 11, 2026

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