Chapman (crater)

Chapman crater, surrounded by its 3 secondary craters

Chapman is a lunar crater that lies just beyond the northwest rim of the Moon, on the far side as seen from the Earth. It lies to the northeast of the Rynin crater, and southward of the large Poczobutt walled plain.

The crater was named after Sydney Chapman (1888 – 1970), a highly cited mathematician and astronomer from the United Kingdom, who studied the Aurora Borealis from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

This is an old, eroded crater formation with features that have been softened and worn by impacts until now it just forms a bowl-shaped depression in the surface. The rim is circular in form along most of its perimeter, but has been broken through along the southern edge by 'Chapman W'. There is an unnamed crater-like depression in the surface attached to the southwest rim, and here the edge is low and more narrow than the remaining inner wall.

Several small craters lie along the outer rim and inner wall, with an attached pair forming a cleft in the western rim. There is a slender cleft in the wall along the northwest inner wall that runs from the western rim to the north. The interior floor of the crater is relatively flat and featureless in comparison to the rugged terrain that surrounds the crater, although it is pock-marked by several small impacts in the southeast quadrant.

Satellite craters

By convention these features are identified on lunar maps by placing the letter on the side of the crater mid-point that is closest to Chapman crater.

Chapman	Latitude	Longitude	Diameter
D	51.4° N	96.8° W	39 km
M	49.0° N	100.7° W	38 km
V	51.0° N	103.8° W	21 km