Banting (crater)
Banting Crater Location
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| Coordinates | 26°36′N 16°24′E / 26.6°N 16.4°ECoordinates: 26°36′N 16°24′E / 26.6°N 16.4°E |
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| Diameter | 6.4 km |
| Depth | 1.1 km |
| Colongitude | 346° at sunrise |
| Eponym | Frederick Banting |
Banting is a small, bowl-shaped lunar impact crater located near the middle of the Mare Serenitatis on the Earth's moon.
Originally named Linné E, in 1973 the crater was renamed for Sir Frederick Banting in honour of his outstanding medical contributions – the most famous being his discovery of insulin.Linné itself, named after the 18th-century Swedish botanist Carl von Linné, lies to the west-northwest.
Other nearby craters are Sarabahi in the east-southeast and Hornsby located more than 100 km nearly southwest. About 70-80 km ESE is Bessel H, a satellite crater of Bessel. About 50 km east is a wrinkle ridge known as Dorsum Azara.
"Banting" was one of approximately fifty new names for lunar craters adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1973. Choosing the names was the first step in the adoption of a new policy that involved broadening crater nomenclature.
The policy was created because of photographs taken by the Apollo spacecraft, which provided an extremely detailed and crater-populated lunar map, essentially proving that a greater variety of names would be needed. The practice that had previously been used was to name one large crater after a selected individual and to name the small craters around it with the same name followed by different letters of the alphabet.
The new policy allowed deceased scientists who had contributed to biological knowledge, like Dr. Banting – as well as scientists from other fields and contributors to culture and knowledge, such as writers, composers, and artists – to have craters named after them. Previously, only the names of astronomers, others who had made important contributions to astronomy, and historical philosophers had been used.
Banting is a 4-mile-wide (6.4 km) "simple" impact crater. It is located in the Sea of Serenity, which is also known as Mare Serenitatis, a large patch of lunar mare. Maria like Mare Serenitatis are dark, smooth areas created by lava pooling on the surface and then cooling, covering up any previously existing craters. They were originally called maria ("seas") because astronomers believed they were bodies of water.
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