Crater chain

For the road in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, see Chain of Craters Road.

Enki Catena is a chain of impact craters on Ganymede, caused by a fragmented space body (usually a comet). The picture covers an area about 120 miles wide.

A crater chain is a line of craters along the surface of an astronomical body. The descriptor term for crater chains is catena (plural catenae), as specified by the International Astronomical Union's rules on planetary nomenclature.^[1]

These chains are thought to be made by the impact of a body that was broken up by tidal forces into a string of smaller objects following roughly the same orbit or by volcanic rift activity. An example of the impact model was seen actually happening with the impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 on Jupiter. During the Voyager missions to the planet, planetary scientists identified 13 crater chains on Callisto and three on Ganymede.

Crater chains seen on the Moon often radiate from larger craters, and are thought to be either caused by secondary impacts of the larger crater's ejecta or by volcanic venting activity along a rift.^[2]

See also

• Moon
  • List of catenae on the Moon
• Mars
  • List of catenae on Mars
• Jupiter
  • List of catenae on Callisto
  • List of catenae on Ganymede
  • List of catenae on Io
• Saturn
  • List of catenae on Rhea
  • List of catenae on Dione
• Neptune
  • List of catenae on Triton

References

1. ^ "Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature - Descriptor Terms (Feature Types)". http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/jsp/append5.jsp. Retrieved 2008-02-03. 
2. ^ "Apollo over the Moon - Chapter 5: Craters". http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-362/ch5.3.htm. Retrieved 2008-02-03. 

External links

• Catena on Callisto
• Lunar Crater Chains
• Galery
• Moon nomenclature catenae