Wurzelbauer (lunar crater)
Wurzelbauer is an impact crater on the Moon's near side, in the southern highlands south of Mare Nubium, officially adopted by the International Astronomical Union and measuring 86.77 km in diameter.1 It lies south of the larger lava-flooded crater Pitatus, beside the 80 km crater Gauricus, and is older than Pitatus.2
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Feature type | Crater, adopted by the IAU; Feature ID 65901 |
| Diameter | 86.77 km1 |
| Center | Latitude −34.04°, longitude −16.06° (planetographic, east-positive)1 |
| Position | Southern highlands south of Pitatus, adjacent to Gauricus (80 km); older than Pitatus2 |
| Satellite craters | Wurzelbauer A through Wurzelbauer Z, shown on the USGS Wilhelm quadrangle geologic map3 |
Location and setting
The Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, maintained by the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in cooperation with the IAU's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature, places Wurzelbauer's rim between latitudes −32.61° and −35.47° and longitudes −17.78° and −14.33°, with a center at −34.04° latitude and −16.06° longitude.1 • 4 This puts it in the heavily cratered southern uplands of the lunar near side. BBC Sky at Night Magazine describes it as one of two craters south of Pitatus that are even older than Pitatus itself, the other being Gauricus.2
Naming
The crater's name reference in the IAU gazetteer is Named Lunar Formations by Mary A. Blagg, the 1935 catalog that standardized lunar nomenclature.1
Satellite craters
Following the convention in which small craters take the name of the nearest large crater plus a Latin letter, the USGS geologic map of the Wilhelm quadrangle lists satellite designations from Wurzelbauer A through Wurzelbauer Z.3 One of these, Wurzelbauer C, was examined in a Chandrayaan multisensor study as an example of the strength-dominated simple crater population, the class of craters smaller than 10 km in diameter whose depth-to-diameter ratio reflects the mechanical properties of the lunar regolith.5
Observing
Amateur observers image Wurzelbauer near the terminator, where low Sun angles exaggerate its relief, and Kaguya orbiter flyover imagery shows the gap in the Pitatus rim that admits a ray of sunlight into that neighboring crater.6
References
- Wurzelbauer, Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, USGS
- A guide to the Moon's Pitatus Crater, BBC Sky at Night Magazine
- Geologic Map of the Wilhelm Quadrangle of the Moon, USGS I-map 824
- Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, USGS
- Chandrayaan Multisensor Insights into Lunar Craterology, LPSC 2026
- Wurzelbauer 3D at the terminator, Cloudy Nights
Initially written Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Oct 25, 2026
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