Wiener (crater)

Wiener (crater) is a prominent lunar impact crater located on the Moon's far side, positioned in the northern hemisphere just beyond the northeastern limb. It is a large, worn formation with a diameter of approximately 120 kilometers, situated to the northwest of the larger walled plain H. G. Wells. The crater's visibility from Earth is limited due to libration, but it has been extensively mapped by orbital spacecraft such as Lunar Orbiter 4 and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Description

The outer rim of **Wiener** is heavily eroded and worn by subsequent impacts, giving it a softened, irregular appearance. The interior floor is relatively level but is marked by several small craterlets and a central peak complex that is offset slightly to the west. A notable smaller crater, **Wiener F**, intrudes into the southeastern rim, and its own ejecta blankets part of **Wiener**'s floor. The terrain to the north and east is rugged, belonging to the battered southern reaches of the Mare Marginis region, while to the southwest lies the distinctive crater pair of Necho and Hertz. The crater's walls show terracing in places, though much of the original structure has been degraded over time by the intense bombardment history of the lunar far side.

Satellite craters

By convention, these features are identified on lunar maps by placing the letter on the side of the crater midpoint that is closest to **Wiener**. The most significant satellite is **Wiener F**, a well-defined impact crater that overlaps the main crater's southeastern rim. Other named satellites include **Wiener H**, located to the northeast on the edge of Mare Marginis, and **Wiener K**, situated to the northwest. These secondary craters, along with several smaller, unnamed formations, are part of the complex cratering record of this region, which also includes impacts related to the larger basins such as Moscoviense. The distribution of these satellites helps planetary geologists analyze the sequence of impact events in the area.

Etymology

The crater is named for **Norbert Wiener**, the renowned American mathematician and philosopher who founded the field of cybernetics. The name was officially adopted by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 1970, following its approval by the IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature. Wiener was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and made seminal contributions to stochastic processes and information theory. His work profoundly influenced diverse fields including artificial intelligence, control theory, and robotics. The crater's namesake joins other nearby features honoring scientists and thinkers, such as H. G. Wells and Heinrich Hertz, in the Mare Marginis region.

Related features

**Wiener** is situated within a geologically complex area of the lunar far side. To the southwest, beyond **Hertz**, lies the younger, rayed crater King. To the northwest, the terrain slopes toward the darker plains of Mare Marginis, which is bordered by the crater Al-Biruni. Southeast of **Wiener** is the larger, degraded walled plain H. G. Wells. This entire region was imaged in detail by missions like Apollo 17 and more recently by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's LROC camera, providing high-resolution data on its stratigraphy and impact history. The crater also lies within the broader gravitational and geological context of the Moscoviense basin, one of the Moon's major impact structures.

Category:Impact craters on the Moon