Cayley is a small
lunarimpact crater that is located in a
lava-flooded region to the west of
Mare Tranquillitatis. It was named after the 19th-century English mathematician
Arthur Cayley.[1] It lies to the northwest of the smaller crater
De Morgan and the larger
D'Arrest. West and slightly north of Cayley is
Whewell, a crater of about the same dimensions. To the north is a linear
rille designated Rima Ariadaeus, which follows a course to the east-southeast.
Description
This is a circular, bowl-shaped formation with a small interior floor at the midpoint. (Small being relative to the overall diameter, as it occupies about one-fourth the total cross-section.) The sloping interior walls are relatively light in hue, having a higher
albedo as the surrounding terrain. However it is not nearly as bright as the slightly larger crater
Dionysius to the east-southeast, and lacks a
ray system.
The smooth, rolling plains to the east of this crater are called the
Cayley Formation. It is somewhat similar to the
lunar maria, but has a slightly higher
albedo and is overlapped at the eastern edge by the
Mare Tranquillitatis. Lunar scientists suspect that this plain may have resulted from deposits of ejecta from the formation of large impact basins such as
Mare Imbrium or
Mare Orientale.[2] (The most likely source is the
Mare Imbrium impact basin to the northwest.)
^"Cayley (crater)". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology Research Program.
^Lunar Light Plains Deposits (Cayley Formation)--A Reinterpretation of Origin. E. C. T. Chao,
L. A. Soderblom, J. M. Boyce,
Don E. Wilhelms, and Carroll Ann Hodges. Abstracts of papers submitted to the Fourth Lunar Science Conference, March 5-8, 1973.
Menzel, D. H.; Minnaert, M.; Levin, B.; Dollfus, A.; Bell, B. (1971). "Report on Lunar Nomenclature by the Working Group of Commission 17 of the IAU". Space Science Reviews. 12 (2): 136–186.
Bibcode:
1971SSRv...12..136M.
doi:
10.1007/BF00171763.
S2CID122125855.
Wood, Chuck (December 12, 2006).
"How Deep is That Hole". Lunar Photo of the Day. Archived from
the original on June 14, 2011. - includes a couple of craters such as Cayley