John Lennon crater

[neufer]

Imagine a crater named John Lennon – it’s easy if you try
Astrobob, December 22, 2013

[b][color=#0000FF]The 59-mile-wide John Lennon crater on Mercury photographed by the orbiting MESSENGER spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/Carnegie Institution of Washington[/color][/b]

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Imagine some ejecta
It isn’t hard to do
Terraced walls and impact melt
Secondary craters too
Imagine central peaks
Rising above the floor…

You may say I’m a complex crater
But I’m not the only one
Someday more will join us
On the planet closest to the sun.

<<The International Astronomical Union, the final authority on the names of planets and satellites in the solar system since 1919, recently approved 10 new names for craters on the planet Mercury. All the crater names are in keeping with the established theme of naming features after ”deceased artists, musicians, painters, and authors who have made outstanding or fundamental contributions to their field and have been recognized as art historically significant figures for more than 50 years.”

The Mercury MESSENGER spacecraft science team proposed the latest bunch, one of which will go to John Lennon (1940-1980), who helped found the Beatles, the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed band in the history of popular music. Other craters named in the recent update include Capote after Truman Capote (1924-1984), author of “In Cold Blood” and other books, and Caruso, for the Italian tenor Enrico Caruso (1873-1921), whose incredible voice resounded in opera houses across Europe and the Americas. Lennon Crater, 95 km in diameter and located in Mercury’s southern hemisphere, is filled with melted rock from the impact and displays a central peak and lovely terraced walls.>>

[owlice]

I think AstroBob would have done better to list Capote as the author of "A Christmas Memory," and this reminds me that I haven't reread it yet this year. I first read it in 7th grade, for my language arts class (or whatever English class was called back then); such a beautiful and bittersweet tale.

I'm glad Lennon has been honored.