SPACE
MASSIVE MOON CRATER
How Tycho, our Moon’s most prominent crater, formed
WORDS SCOTT DUTFIELD
DID YOU KNOW? The unmanned Surveyor 7 spacecraft landed just 18 miles north of Tycho crater’s rim in 1968
A mosaic image of the Tycho crater taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
I t’s estimated that there are millions of craters sprawled across the surface of the Moon. However, one stands out among all the lunar impact sites visible from our vantage point here on Earth. Named after the Danish astronomer, Tycho Brahe, the Tycho crater has long intrigued astronomers. Its high walls, flat floor and central peak make it seem like a city on Earth’s natural satellite. Even the Victorian selenographer (someone who charts the Moon) Thomas Gwyn Elger called it “the Metropolitan crater of the Moon”.