Al-Mustazi (crater)

EncelGeo-Crater
name=Al-Mustazi
picture=
Al-Mustazi (center) as seen
by the "Cassini" spacecraft on July 14, 2005
location=20.8°S, 198.4°W
diameter=10.0 km
depth=
discoverer="Cassini"
naming=Az-Zahir; Abbasid Caliph

Al-Mustazi is an impact crater located on the anti-Saturn hemisphere of Saturn's moon Enceladus. Al-Mustazi was first observed in "Cassini" images during that mission's March 2005 flyby of Enceladus. It is located at 20.8° South Latitude, 198.4° West Longitude, and is ten kilometers across. "Cassini" observed numerous southwest-northeast trending fractures cutting across the southwest rim of Al-Mustazi, forming canyons several hundred meters deep. These fractures were deflected by the weakened regolith produced by the Al-Mustazi impact.A. N. Barnash "et al." (2006). " [http://www.abstractsonline.com/viewer/viewAbstract.asp?CKey={25BDAB68-CDB8-47D3-A19C-D0FFD5D11E58}&MKey={66F0352A-30DC-4B9F-B0CC-E851495B78DC}&AKey={AAF9AABA-B0FF-4235-8AEC-74F22FC76386}&SKey={C4707917-6E8C-4620-9DC2-2A702863D08D} Interactions Between Impact Craters and Tectonic Fractures on Enceladus] ". "Bull. Am. Astron. Soc." 38 (3): Presentation Num. 24.06.] This deflection produced the pattern of radiating fractures seen along the northeastern rim of Al-Mustazi.

Al-Mustazi is named after Az-Zahir, an 13th-century Abbasid caliph and a character in the "The Hunchback’s Tale" from "The Book of One Thousand and One Nights".

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